The Animorphs Meet the JJL
by Chicken Paddy
Summary: My first FanFic. Please R&R. What if the Animorphs went to a different universe? What if they met super heroes while there? A group of super heroes...plus a super villian. Meet the JJL! Chapter 8 is up! Note: I'm thinking about changing story title
1. Parallel

**The Animorphs Meet the JJL**

………

**By Chicken Paddy**

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**Chapter 1:**

**Parallel**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Animorphs characters, powers, or plot. I do, however, own the JJL characters and plot. There, you happy?

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**JAKE:**

My name is Jake. I'm an Animorph. And we were going to attempt a suicidal mission. As we walked down the corridors of the old warehouse I felt goose bumps on my arm. Marco told a joke and we gave a nervous laugh.

"Get ready guys," I said. "Battle morphs."

Ax demorphed into his Andalite form. (It should be,) he said (over here!) He jammed his tail blade into the ground and loosed a fake slab of shale that blended seamlessly with the rest of the floor.

I felt fur ripple across my body and my spine lengthened. My gums itched as teeth made to rip flesh and muscle sprouted out of them. My sense of smell grew keener and my muscles became taught. I was the tiger.

(Let's go.) I took the lead. We went down several flights of stairs. There was a light or two every so many feet.

(Ooooh, man) Marco shuddered. (It feels like we're going back down to the Yeerk pool all over again.)

(But, we are not going to the Yeerk pool.) Ax corrected. (We are infiltrating Visser Three's "Trans-Dimensional Project")

(Thanks to the information given to us by Erik.) Cassie added

(What's wrong, Marco?) teased Rachel. (Need your blankie?)

(Yes. Very much so.)

Eventually we came to what looked like a small computer room next to a heavy steel door. There was a set of gas tanks in the corner of the room held in place by taught wires. There was no sign of a data pad or retinal scanner. Ax was going to try to hack the computer until we found out the keys were unmarked and there was no screen.

(Wow,) said Marco. (The Visser really likes his security.)

(Any ideas?) I asked.

(I might have one.) said Ax. (But it is rather risky.)

(Go ahead.)

Ax explained his idea. After hearing it we all blanched, except Rachel.

(Let's do it!) she said.

(What?) exclaimed Cassie.

(I thought we were supposed to be sneaking.) said Tobias.

(You have **got** to be kidding me!) said Marco.

(Well,) I said. (Any better ideas?)

No one had one. (Well, Ax,) I said. (Hit it!)

(Oh boy.) groaned Marco as he covered his gorilla ears.

Ax stood there for a moment, calculating. Then his tail blade whipped out and cut the wires holding the gas tanks in place. He cut just right so when the taught wires snapped they caused one of the tanks to puncture and fly out toward the door. Ax then cut a cable that fed into the computer and it began shooting sparks everywhere. The sparks caused the gas to light, which also caused the tank to explode, completely removing the door from its frame.

_BLAM!_

The explosion was deafening. We looked up as the smoke began to clear, which revealed an army of Hork-Bajir, Taxxons and Visser Three himself waiting for us.

(Oh, crap!)

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**THE JJL:**

John crept down the rows of crates with the rest of the JJL close behind. "See anything, Tomi?" he asked.

"Nope," he answered. John and Tomi were Animalians. Dog Animalians to be exact. This meant they both had enhanced hearing and vision. Tomi was an adept thief who knew what to look for when infiltrating a building. John was the leader. His eyes were enhanced by his Empowered energy. With John was Lee, JJL second rank, the strategist; Jimmy, JJL third rank, the technical expert; Rusty, JJL fourth rank, the warrior; Marcus, JJL fifth rank, the spell caster; and Tomi, the master thief.

John turned on his watch communicator: "So, Chet. Do ya have the schematics on this warehouse yet?"

Chet's voice came out of John's watch. "They should be there right abooouut…now!" A green grid hologram popped out of John's watch. Chet looked at John through the watch's visual feed. "Happy hunting."

John looked at the hologram. "What do you make of this Jimmy?"

Jimmy examined the hologram and let out a hum. "Hmmm…it seems it should be right over there." Jimmy pointed his index and middle fingers at a spot on the ground not too far away. Blue light surrounded his fingertips and a fake slab of shale that blended seamlessly with the rest of the floor levitated away, revealing a flight of stairs.

"Nice." John led the JJL down several flights of stairs with a light every five feet. Not that John needed them. John kept his x-ray vision on constantly and kept asking Tomi if he saw anything. _Ubus Mellus could have laid any number of traps down here_ thought John.

"I hate infiltrating Ubus Mellus's bases." said Rusty. "They always give me the creeps."

"Really?" said Marcus. "It feels more like the jitters."

"Creeps, jitters, same thing." Tomi said in his slight English accent.

"At least it's not Mellus's main base on IO." Lee pointed out. "After we destroy this base we will have completely gotten him out of the Earth system."

"There it is." John said, breaking up the nervous chatter. "And what is wrong with you guys. It's not like we haven't beaten Ubus before."

They came to a stop before a heavy steel door, with no data pads or retinal scanners to speak of, next to a computer. "It looks like the computer is in Lobsteranian" observed Jimmy.

"Not quite," said Lee, who actually was a Lobsteranian. "It's like some form of mangled English, crossbred with butchered Lobsteranian, lightly seasoned with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs."

"Wow," said Marcus. "Ubus really likes his security."

"Well, let's just blast through the door with our powers" said Rusty.

"Wait a minute." Lee stepped in. "This is about stealth. We just can't go bashing through doors."

"Just let me melt through it with my heat vision," said John. Before anyone could say anything John's eyes glowed with a fierce red light and a slight blue coloring. Twin beams of heat and light shot from John's Animalian eyes.

_TSSSEWWW TSSSEWWW!_

John blinked several times to clear his eyes of the leftover Empowered energy. The door was unscathed.

"Of course," said John. "This is Ubus we're talking about. Of course he's going to make his base heat-vision resistant. Gosh dangit!" John sighed. "Any other ideas?"

Tomi looked as if he was thinking. "I might have one, but it's a risk."

"Go ahead"

After hearing it the JJL paled. Lee's red exoskeleton even seemed to turn a shade of pink. All except John and Rusty.

"Let's do it!" said John.

"Alright!" exclaimed Rusty

"But, I just pointed out this whole thing's about stealth!" said Lee.

Marcus vigorously agreed.

"Why don't we try the computer again?" suggested Jimmy. "I'm sure it won't take that long to decode."

After everyone gave Jimmy a weird stare Tomi put in: "But, Lee, you forget that I am the thief **master**"

"Master or not, there's too much risk!"

"Well, it's either that or wait for Jimmy to decode the computer for a decade and a half," John pointed out.

"Well, then. Shall I?" said Tomi.

"Be my guest. Hit it!"

"Oh boy," Jimmy mumbled as he covered his ears.

Tomi held up his daggers. They were seemingly ordinary black daggers with some sort of writing on them. Each was about a foot in length. One glowed blue, the other glowed yellow. Tomi swung them and blue and yellow piercing beams came from the Blades of Truth and Knowledge and went directly for the door.

_BA-BLAM!_

"'Master thief' huh," growled Lee.

"Everyone makes mistakes," Tomi said sheepishly.

"Uh, guys?" said Rusty. "We have trouble."

The JJL looked through the hollow doorway. They saw an army of Mini-Mels, Ubus Mellus's little abominations; Mega-Mels, bigger versions of the Mini-Mels; the Uber-Mels, Ubus Mellus's personal clones; and Ubus Mellus himself. "'Welcome to my lair' said the spider to the fly" he mocked.

"Aw, crud!"

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**Author's Note:** There's chapter one. Tell me what you guys think. I'm open to all flames. Go ahead and ask questions too. I'll answer them as soon as I can. Thank you. 


	2. Chaos

**Chapter 2:**

**Chaos**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Animorphs characters, powers, or plot. I do, however, own the JJL characters, powers, and plot. There, you happy?

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**MARCO:**

(Oh, crap!)

I don't know who said it. It could've been me. Yeah, it was me.

(CHARGE!) That, however, was from _Xena_. Well, like the psycho adolescent teens we are, that is exactly what we did. I saw Ax swing his tail blade forward and swing it right through a Hork-Bajir. When I say "right through", I mean it was like cutting air, as if the Hork-Bajir was a ghost or something.

(He's using the holographic Hork-Bajir trick again!) Jake cried in private thought-speak. (The Visser thought he could fake us out.)

Not all the walking razorblades were fake though. Only a little under half were. The Visser sat behind a control panel, mocking us with all his might. (So, little bandits, you thought you could stand up against the might of the Yeerks.)

(Yadda, yadda, yadda.) I said as I punched through a Taxxon. (Can't this guy ever shut up?)

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**THE JJL:**

"Aw, crud!" said Marcus.

"Here we go again," said John.

Marcus pulled out his Spellwood staff, ready for battle. The rest of the JJL also pulled out their gadgets and powered up their weapons..

"You teenagers will never be able stand up to my wrath!" said Mellus.

"Aren't you the same age as us?" asked John

"In body, yes. But in mind, I am eons older than you. Ha ha ha ha ha ha..." Ubus set off into maniacal laughter.

"Laugh this off!" shouted Marcus. "_Fortano Yadigyama!_"

_BLAM!_

The ground beneath Mellus burst upward in magical energy. "You shall pay for that!" retaliated Mellus. "Charge my minions!"

The Mel abominations swarmed the JJL. They began firing laser machine guns and grenade launchers. John jumped into the air, his fists glowing.

_SHOOOOOM!_

John launched off a beam of Empowered energy into a glob – yes, a glob – of Mini-Mels.

"_Pyromantis!_" An arch of fire shot from the end of Marcus's staff, engulfing a clump of Mega-Mels. Tomi spun around like a blender, destroying the Mini-Mels instantaneously. When a Mini-Mel is destroyed it changes into what looks like small, colorful granules of sand. "OMEGA STRIKE!" Arcs of destructive energy erupted from the end of Rusty's Omega sword.

_CRACKLE-BOOM!_

Lee charged himself and shot lightening out of his fingertips, destroying a few Mega-Mels. When a Mega-Mel is destroyed it changes into a pale, peach colored, watery liquid. Jimmy turned on his super speed and began destroying Mega- and Mini-Mels as fast as he could, for they were generating out of tubes in the perimeter of the room.

The battle had begun.

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**AX:**

_SHINK! SHINK!_

I cut two Taxxons in half. The other Taxxon-Controllers could not resist the temptation and began devouring their fallen comrades. I almost pitied them. Almost. I slashed upward and split open a Hork-Bajir's chest.

_TSSEWWW!_

"Rrrraggh!" Rachel cried as a Dracon Beam seared into her left shoulder. I immediately sliced the shooter's bladed arm off. I lunged forward with my blade and…

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**THE JJL:**

…cleanly lopped the Mini-Mel's head off. Tomi watched as the Mini-Mel degraded to its basic particles and another one came out of the wall to replace it. _Well, _he thought, _at least my blades don't get all bloody._

"Haaarrrgh!" John cried as he leaped over Tomi and Power Punched an Uber-Mel.

Unlike the other Mel abominations, the two Uber-Mels looked like normal people and were quite intelligent. "Hey," shouted Dario, the Uber-Mel John just punched. "You'll pay for that!"

"Oh no he won't! OMEGA STRIKE!" Rusty plunged his sword into Dario's back. When a UM – Uber-Mel – is destroyed it turns unto a gaseous form to regain energy and reform at a later time.

Mellus cringed as Dario disintegrated. The JJL were destroying his Mel abominations faster than the machines could replace them. If he didn't do something soon the JJL would overrun him. "Xario! Go take Dario's place."

"But, I thought you wanted me to protect you," whined the other UM. He _really_ did not want to go out there.

Ubus looked out at the battle from behind his control panel and power-proof glass. Just then Tomi Twinblade lunged toward Mellus's station.

_VWWOOOOMMP… KA-POW! CRACKLE!_

The towers on either side of Mellus charged up and zapped the furry thief with a powerful discharge of electricity. "Don't you know that you're never supposed to step between two Tesla towers?" mocked Mellus.

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**JAKE:**

I lunged at a Hork-Bajir and tore out his trachea.

_VWWOOOOMMP…_

I looked toward the sound. I saw Ax leaping between two towers at Visser Three. The Visser was oddly calm. Then I noticed the electricity traveling up the towers.

(Ax, watch out!) I cried. But I was too late.

_KA-POW! CRACKLE!_

Ax was thrown across the room, straight into Cassie.

(AAAAHH!) yelled Cassie as she was buried under Ax's body. A group of Hork-Bajirs decided to take advantage of the distraction.

(NOOO!) The next thing I knew I was covered in Hork-Bajir blood and pushing Ax off of Cassie. (Are you alright?) I asked her.

(I'm fine Prince Jake.) Ax stood up groggily.

(Jake, behind you!) yelled Cassie.

_CHUNK! CRACK!_

Ax stuck his tail blade into the Hork-Bajir that had been sneaking up behind me and turned it to make a sick cracking sound. Ax pulled out his tail blade and the alien's heart was still on the end of it.

(Good one Ax!) said Marco. Ax looked thoroughly disgusted.

I looked toward Visser Three. He seemed distracted as he watched Rachel rip a Hork-Bajir's arms off and rip a Taxxon to shreds with them. I got an idea.

(Marco, could you throw a Hork-Bajir body between the lightning towers?)

(I'm your man.) Marco picked up the Hark-Bajir Ax had just killed and heaved it toward Visser Three. I began to rush in the same direction.

_VWWOOOOMMP…_

_KA-POW! CRACKLE, CRACKLE, CRACKLE…_

The towers began to continuously shock the body. That was when the Visser decided to get out of there. I saw him slide his tail blade into a grooved spot on his control panel. A black, hi-tech looking object latched to his tail. He turned away from me and sliced his tail through the air in front of him. His blade left a glowing yellow line in the air. It turned into a bright, glowing, yellow circle. I lunged.

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**THE JJL:**

John was shooting heat beams, Power Beams, Power Balls, and throwing Power Punches. He was finally beginning to advance toward Ubus Mellus's position.

_SHOOOOOM!_

A red Power Beam blew past John's doglike muzzle. Blue energy means good, red meant evil. He turned to see Xario floating not too far away.

"_Infinita!_" shouted Marcus. Xario's arms and legs began stretching like elastic in all directions.

"AAAAAGGH!" cried Xario as he reduced himself into his vapor form.

John looked down at Marcus. "Thanks," said John.

"Man," said Lee as he zapped another Mini-Mel. "This place is so full of Mini-Mel particles that you would think it's a beach."

An idea flashed through John's mind. "And what does every beach need?" he said.

Lee quickly caught on. "Oh, Marcus."

Marcus nodded. "_Hydromantis!_" A jet of water came out of the end of the spell caster's staff.

Among Lee's Lobsteranian abilities was the ability to control water. Lee lifted up his hands and a wave of water crashed down on the abominations.

John looked toward Ubus Mellus. He looked panicky as he watched his forces being destroyed. John looked at the Tesla towers. Although Tomi was still alive, John did not want to go near the Tesla towers. Then he remembered Lee's electric powers.

"Lee," John said. "I need you to fly next to me."

John called out with his mind: (Rusty, wherever you are, I need you to make a Delta Portal through the glass. Can you do that?)

Rusty rocketed through the air on his jet pack to get a good position. "Sure can!" he shouted to John.

John flew full speed leaving a blue energy trail behind him. Lee wasn't too far behind. _I only have one shot at this,_ thought John

_VWWOOOOMMP… KAPOW! WOOOINNN…_

Lee began to absorb the electric current. "NO!" shouted Ubus. "YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST OF ME!" He turned away from John and attached a black, hi-tech looking object to his index finger and swiped it through the air. _He's making a dimensional portal! _Thought John. A bright, glowing, yellow circle formed. "DELTA!" cried Rusty. John flew through the triangular hole Rusty had made through the glass while charging up his fists.

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_**THE DIMENSIONAL TUNNEL:**_

_This is a place almost completely separated from the world of physics and reason. It is of infinite size and is without time. On either side of the tunnel two tendrils formed and began to connect with other parts of the tunnel. The tendrils went too close and connected, creating a huge display of lightning and sparks. A swirling ball appeared where they had connected with each other and began to build up energy. Powerful surges went from the ball, back down the tendrils to the sources._

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**CASSIE:**

I watched as Jake leapt toward Visser Three. Then all hell broke loose. Visser Three looked at the circle and at Jake. The circle's edges were wobbling and its size kept changing. The Andalite-Controller jumped upward, clear of the portal and Jake.

_BA-BOOOM!_

A giant yellow explosion ripped from the circle, flinging Jake backward. His lifeless body hit the ground hard.

(JAKE!) I yelled.

(He's getting away!) cried Tobias. (Visser Three's getting in an escape pod.)

All the other Hork-Bajir and Taxxons were also leaving the underground chamber.

I stood by Jake, hoping he wasn't dead. He began to move. (Cassie? W-what happened?) he said.

_CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!_

The circle had grown huge and giant whip-like tendrils had come out of it. One headed straight for Jake. (No!) I yelled.

The tendril enveloped Jake in a yellowish cocoon. I attempted to bite the tendril, but was thrown back by an electric jolt. I saw that Ax and Marco were also picked up. The tendrils pulled them into the circle. (NOOO!) I cried. The circle began to throb.

(It's gonna blow!) exclaimed Tobias. (There was a small closet back up the stairs. If you two demorph, we might fit in there.)

(But what about Jake?) I said.

(We have no time for that now.) Rachel was already demorphing.

We rushed up the stairs into the closet just in time. We couldn't close the door so I had to squish myself as far back as I could go.

_BOOOM!_

A giant yellow electric explosion blew right past me. I didn't get shocked, but I felt strangely warm and calm inside. When I looked through the explosive force still blowing past me, I could've sworn that I saw a handsome red haired boy with an "A" on his shirt, a boy who was wearing a fobe and holding a staff, and what had to be a Pemalite with pure black fur. And just as suddenly as they had appeared, they vanished.

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**The JJL:**

Ubus Mellus knew something was wrong with the portal, so he dodged sideways out of its way..

_BA-BOOOM!_

A huge explosion of dimensional energy erupted from the portal, sending John hurtling through the air. Ubus decided to use this opportunity to flee. "We shall meet again, JJL"

"Ugh…" moaned John.

_CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!_

Three whip-like tendrils came out of the portal and began whipping the air. "Something's wrong with the dimensional portal!" shouted Jimmy. John was quick to retort: "No dip!"

"Uh…John?" said Lee.

_CRACK!_

"What?" said John. "Lee?" he said when there was no answer.

Lee was suspended in a yellowish cocoon that was headed for the portal. "LEE, NO!" John yelled.

_CRACK!_

Now Jimmy was being pulled toward the portal. "C'mon, John! We have to get outta here!" yelled Rusty.

_CRACK!_

John was soon pulled into the portal. The portal began to throb.

"Forget about John, we need to save ourselves," said Tomi.

"He's right," said Marcus. "We can't do anything for John, Jimmy, or Lee. There was a broom closet up the stairs. If we hurry we might be able to make it."

Rusty, Tomi, and Marcus ran as fast as they could up the stairs and into the closet. They could barely squeeze into it.

_BOOOM!_

The torrent of dimensional energy tore past what was left of the JJL A-team (yes, there are more JJL members, but we'll get to that later). Rusty could have sworn that when he looked through the explosive torrent roaring past him, he could see a beautiful blonde tough-looking girl, a smaller black girl, and a big bird of some kind. What was even stranger than the bird was that the girls were both wearing leotards. Just as sudden as they had appeared, the image vanished.

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**Author's Note:** FINALLY! That was chapter two (it sure did take me long enough). Tell me what you guys think. I'm open for all kinds of flames. Please let me know of any grammatical errors or spelling mistakes. Go ahead and ask questions too. I'll answer them as soon as I can. Thank you. 


	3. Unreal

**Chapter 3:**

**Unreal**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Animorphs characters, powers, or plot. I do, however, own the JJL characters, powers, and plot. There, you happy?

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**THE JJL:**

Rusty walked into what was left of the battle room. Just fifteen minutes ago the JJL had been defeating Ubus Mellus's abominations. He sighed and looked at the huge pile of boulders where the portal had been. They had been blown out from the ceiling, and now there was a large hole in it.

"What do you think happened to John, Jimmy, and Lee?" Tomi asked.

"I don't know," answered Rusty. "Marcus?"

"Hmm?" the spell caster answered.

"You got anything?"

"Hold your horses. A proper 'search' spell takes a while to prepare," he said as he spread a fine powder in a circle around his feet.

"Well we may not have a while! There's no telling what kind of danger John and the others are in!"

"All right! I'm done preparing anyway. Now step back away from my energies."

Tomi gave Marcus an odd look. "What do _I _have to do with any of your 'energies'?"

"Just step back," said Marcus. He spread out his hands and closed his eyes. _"Enchantus!" _His staff levitated in front of him. _"Locatus!" _The powder began to sparkle and glow. _"Fortanus Yadigyamus Magamantisoma Locatus Johnus Jimus Leeo Notas!"_

_FLASH!_

An incredible glow surrounded Marcus and tendrils of light went from the powder, into his eyes. Pulses of magic, much like the pulse of sonar, came out of Marcus's magic bubble.

Tomi whistled and Rusty gawked. "No matter how many times I see you do that," said Tomi. "it always weirds me out."

"Do you see them?" Rusty said when he came to.

"I see _some_thing," said Marcus. "But I'm not sure if it's the guys. Although there are three of them and one of them is _definitely _not from this planet."

"That would be Lee!" exclaimed Rusty, giddy with anticipation of finding his friends. "Where are they?"

"In the pile of boulders."

"C'mon guys, lets start digging!"

There was another flash as Marcus disabled his "search" spell. _Well, that was easy, _he thought. _Too easy._

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**John:**

I opened my eyes. "Ugh…" My head hurt like I had been walloped in the head by a 2x4. No, make that a semi-full of 2x4's. The first thing I noticed was I couldn't move. It felt like I was being crushed by boulders. It was so dark I couldn't see anything. So I decided to turn on my X-Ray Vision. And that's how I found out I actually _was_ under a pile of boulders.

_BOOM!_

Lucky for me, I have Empowered powers and easily managed to blow the rocks off of me. I seemed to be in the same room were my team and I had fought Ubus Mellus. There was a huge jagged hole in the ceiling that must've been caused by some explosion. Hey, where _was _my team, anyway? Then I heard something coming down the hallway. Make it some_ things_. One was small and sounded like a dog walking on a tile floor. The other was huge and sent vibrations through the ground with each step, and I thought I could hear the flapping of some bird's wings.

I turned invisible, just in case it was one of Mellus's minions. Out of the hallway came a wolf, a grizzly bear, and a hawk. This was either my mind playing tricks on me after being buried under a bunch of rocks, or Dario, Xario, and Ubus had figured out a way to shape shift. The wolf and the bear were looking at each other as if they were talking, but I didn't hear any words.

But then I heard, (Do you think they're under there?)

The sound was in my head, like telepathy. That meant that they had to be Ubus and his goons.

(Yeah, most likely. I might need to morph elephant. Tobias, tell me if you see anything.)

The voices sounded feminine. There weren't any females in Ubus's group. And one of them had used the name "Tobias". That meant Ubus had a new member. And if these_ guys _were actually _girls_, that meant he must have a _lot_ more new members! But the name "Tobias" sounded too normal for his style.

While I was pondering this, the not-quite-a-bear-thing-a-ma-jig walked out of the room, and the wolf-a-ma-jig walked up to the boulder pile and started sniffing it.

(Hey, Tobias! I smell something weird here.)

(What do you mean?)

(I smell a human smell…but there's something else too. And I don't think it's from Earth.)

She – or it – must be referring to Lee! I decided to make my move. I slowly levitated right above and behind her and started to power up my fists.

(Hey, Cassie, do you hear that?)

(Yeah, it sounds like something electronic is powering up. And it's very close too.)

(Cassie! Behind you!)

Uh, oh. My fists were giving off a whirring noise and were glowing with a faint blue light, which could still be seen even though I was invisible. The wolf thingy turned around, and she/it must've seen my glowing hands because she started to growl. Hawk-boy was beginning to get on my nerves. I turned visible and was about to Power Beam him when all of a sudden…

_CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!_

(What's going on in here!) yelled the elephant.

"You have **got** to be kiddin' me!"

* * *

**THE JJL:**

Rusty pushed aside a boulder. "What the --" was all he managed to get out before…

_SMACK! SMACK!_

Rusty was sent sprawling by a blue flurry.

"What the heck is THAT?" cried Tomi. The blue and tan centaur looked at him. At least, it looked like centaur. If you ignored the blue and tan fur, the extra fingers, its slit for a nose, a vicious tail with a scythe-like blade, and the fact that it didn't have a mouth. Besides those things it looked very much like a centaur. Oh, and let's not forget the extra pairs of eyes. _Stalk_ eyes to be precise. And those were the eyes it happened to stare at Tomi with.

"_REYA UND INFINTO!"_ A yellowish beam shot from the end of Marcus's staff.

_SMACK!_

The _thing_ flicked its tail blade and sent the beam back into Marcus's gut.

"Oof! It can reflect spells!" said the bewildered spellcaster.

(Get 'em!) All of a sudden, a tiger and a gorilla burst from the pile of boulders.

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(Die, Yeerk slime!) cried Ax as he swiped at the dog-like alien.

"What did I ever do to you?" it said.

Marco swung a gorilla fist at it. The dog person leaped high in the air and drew out two daggers.

(Hey, Jake! Isn't that a Pemalite?) said Marco. (I thought they were peaceful. Not to mention extinct.)

(It doesn't matter,) said Jake. (It's trying to slice and dice us and it's most likely a Controller.)

"OMEGA STRIKE!" A huge arc shot from the red-haired boy's sword and knocked Jake and Marco on the ground.

Marco got back onto his gorilla feet. (Well, that's just great. One has deadly daggers, another has a staff, and the other has a weird sword!)

_SHINK! SHINK! "ELECTROMANTIS!"…ZZZAAAPP!_

Sword Guy – as Marco called him – had started a blade fight with Ax, and Staff Guy – the one who said the funky words – said something funky and zapped Marco. Meanwhile, Jake was making advances on Dog Guy – you can guess who.

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"I don't want to hurt you," Tomi said to the tiger. "I don't like to hurt animals, even if they do want to kill me."

The tiger lunged and Tomi dodged. The tiger lunged again and this time it caught Tomi. "Ow! It got me! This is one smart tiger."

"So is this gorilla," said Marcus, rubbing the spot where the gorilla had punched him.

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(Marco,) said Jake. (I don't think these are Controllers.)

(Why not?)

(Because,) said Ax, as he deflected another one of Sword Guy's swings. (They are not showing a Controller's usual arrogance.)

(Then what do you think we should do, oh great leader?) Marco sneered at Jake. (Are you just going to demorph and say 'hiya, sorry for the misunderstanding, but you're not the guys we want to fight. Ya see, there are these aliens…)

(Alright, Marco, I get the point. Let's just—OOF!)

Dog Guy kicked Jake, square in the face. Jake went tumbling onto his back underneath the hole in the ceiling. He was just about to get on all fours again, when he saw something. Something that sent chills down his spine. (Guys,) he said shakily. (you should see this.)

Marco looked back at Jake. (You mean in the middle of a—)

"_FORTANO YADIGYAMA!"_

_BLAM!_

Marcus and Ax were sent tumbling toward Jake from a sudden explosion.

(Well, I might as well.) Marco took a quick glance upward. Then he did a double take and stared.

(Is that…) murmured Ax.

(It-it can't be!) stuttered Marco.

All three were looking up at where the moon should've been.

(It is.) said Jake.

In the moon's place in the sky…was Earth.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Alright, there's chapter three. I'm sorry I don't have any more info on John in the Animorph's world. Tell me what you guys think. I'm open for all kinds of flames. Please let me know of any grammatical errors or spelling mistakes. Go ahead and ask questions too. I'll answer them as soon as I can. Thank you.

Traycon3: thanks for giving me advice and encouraging me back on chapters one and two

evildude: thanks for giving your opinion. That's what I was going for.

G8Master:thanks for giving me the encouragement I needed to go on with the story.

I would also like to thank Gloria and Sami for checking my chapters for grammar mistakes and giving me their opinions. Thanks guys! ;-)


	4. Discovery

**Chapter 4:**

**Discovery**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Animorphs characters, powers, or plot. I do, however, own the JJL characters, powers, and plot. There, you happy?

**Note:** Telepathy: the power to speak with your mind

Telekinesis: the power to use you mind to move objects

Please don't mix them up!

* * *

**Tobias:**

"You have **got** to be kiddin' me!" the dog person exclaimed when it saw Rachel in elephant morph.

_TSEEEEW!_

A blue beam shot from the dog person's hands at Rachel. The beam went through her ear.

_WHAP!_

Rachel smacked the dog person with her trunk, and he was thrown into the opposite wall. He landed on the ground, unconscious.

(Thanks,) said Cassie.

(Hey,) I said. (Isn't that a Pemalite?)

(It can't be,) said Rachel. (Pemalites are extinct.)

(And he was nowhere _near_ peaceful enough,) added Cassie.

I landed on Rachel's back and stared at the so-called Pemalite. He had mostly black fur, except for his muzzle and hands – er, paws – which were brown. And he only had four fingers on each hand. He looked kind of like a Doberman pinscher. He was wearing a military green T-shirt, a vest of the same color, and he military style hat of the same shade of green. He was also wearing blue jeans, a silver watch, and sneakers. (Don't his clothes seem oddly similar to human clothing?)

(Yeah,) said Cassie. (I noticed that too.)

(Do you think it's a controller?) asked Rachel.

(I don't…) I started to say. I had heard a sound. I heard a sound that only I could hear. It was movement. And it was coming from the pile of boulders.

(Tobias?) said Rachel. (What's wrong? What is it?)

(There's something buried in the boulders,) I said.

(Like what?) asked Cassie.

_BOOM!_

From the boulders came a blast of blue light and there was an area cleared out of them. Some_thing_ floated out of it. It looked like a human, but instead of skin, it had a red exoskeleton. It had two antennae sticking out of the top of its head. It was wearing pretty much the same clothes as the Doberman except the hat, vest, and T-shirt were white. It was actually _floating_ in midair! It looked from the Doberman, to us, and back at the Doberman.

(Now that is _definitely_ not a Pemalite!) exclaimed Rachel.

The red thing started to speak, "Uh…did I come at a bad time?"

I wasn't expecting it to say that. I had actually half expected it to say "Take me to your leader."

The Doberman must have awakened because then I heard, "Lee, they're hostile!"

(Oh, boy…) I grumbled.

* * *

**Jimmy:**

CRASH!

_The wall splintered open and the room was filled with bladed demons. (YOU SHALL DIE!) The voice filled my head, like a really strong telepathy. A centaur with extra eyes and a scorpion's tail walked into the room. He looks at me. I am filled with dread. I want to crawl into as little a ball as possible and…_

I open my eyes. It was just a dream. It…wait a second! I had a boulder on top of me. I could hear the sound of power beams and loud crashes. Then I remembered the battle at Ubus's. I also remembered the dimensional portal. _What happened? _I wondered. _And where did these rocks come from?_ I carefully used telekinesis to levitate the rock off of me.

_ZZZAP!_

(Did it just shoot lightening out of its hands?)

It was like telepathy, except not quite. Then I remembered the centaur from my dream.

_HYRRUUUFFFGG!_

"John, watch out!"

That's it! Now I **had** to know what was going on.

I flew over the rock pile and saw one of the weirdest things I have ever seen.

John and Lee were flying around and shooting power beams at and elephant and a wolf.

_TSEEEEEEER!_

I looked up and saw a hawk let out a screech and dive at John. It was a red-tailed hawk to be exact. _Wait a second!_ I thought. _It can't be! It is!_ And to prove my idea I heard:

(Cassie, Rachel, these guys must have gadgets we've never seen before. Those aren't exactly Dracon blasts, and I don't see anything supporting them in the air. They don't really seem like Controllers either.)

I was practically jittering with excitement. _Could it really be them? If so, where are the other three?_

"Jimmy!" John yelled over the roar of the elephant, "Come down here and help us get rid of these Mellus goonies.

(Tobias, there's another one!)

"John!" I practically screamed with excitement. "Do you **know** who these guys are? Do you _realize_ who you are attacking!"

"Yeah, some of Ubus's new hired help."

"No, John, you don't understand! They're…"

"--Evil henchmen. Yeah, I know. Now help out here!"

"But, John…"

John avoided a swing of the elephant's trunk. "Are you gonna help out or what?"

Then Lee spoke up. "Give Jimmy a chance to speak, John. It might be important!" I felt a lot of gratitude for Lee at that moment.

"Alright," John consented. "What is it?"

I couldn't hold it in any longer. "These guys are the Animorphs!"

* * *

**Rachel:**

I thought it had gotten weird when the red thing started floating. But now the Dog Boy and red thing were _flying_ around the room while shooting weird beams at us.

_TSEEEEEEER!_

Tobias shrieked and dived toward Dog Boy.

The Dog Boy held out his hands and surrounded himself with a blue orb and dodged Tobias's deadly talons.

(Cassie, Rachel,) said Tobias. (These guys must have gadgets we've never seen before. Those aren't exactly Dracon blasts, and I don't see anything supporting them in the air. They don't really seem like Controllers either.)

(Whatever they are,) I said. (We've never seen them before.)

I let out another roar.

(Tobias,) said Cassie. (There's another one!)

A kid floated out from behind the pile of boulders. Yes, floated. He was wearing the same clothes as the Dog Boy and red thing, except his hat, shirt, and vest were blue. He had blonde hair and Caucasian skin. He looked around and his face lit up, like he had realized something.

I kept trying to hit the Dog Boy with my trunk but he kept dodging me and arguing with the blonde kid.

Then the red thing said "Give Jimmy a chance to speak, John. It might be important!"

The blonde kid smirked and blurted out "These guys are the Animorphs!"

Everything stopped. I stopped swinging my trunk, Cassie stopped growling, Tobias stopped screeching, and the aliens stopped flying around.

The kid started pointing at us successively. "The elephant's Rachel, the wolf's Cassie, and the red-tailed hawk's Tobias." He looked like a kid on Christmas who just won the lottery. Then he began to tell the story, the story about the night in the construction site, the story about Elfangor and Visser Three. He told about the Yeerks and their ability to crawl in you ear and take over your mind. He told about how well they could make themselves blend in with Human society.

But he told it with such glee. Like a child repeating a good story. It made me angry that he could possibly be happy when telling about that night. He couldn't possibly express the feelings we felt that night.

(WHAT DO YOU KNOW!) I exploded. I couldn't let him get away with this.

(Rachel,) Cassie said in a calming voice, as if she was talking to a dangerous animal. And, in a way, I was.

(Rachel,) she said again. (Calm down. This could be a way to get them on our side.)

(What?) Tobias exclaimed in disbelief. (Them? On our side?)

I agreed with him

Cassie sat down and stared at the blonde boy intently.

(What's your name?) she said.

"Huh?" He seemed confused.

(My name is Cassie. What is _your_ name?)

* * *

**John:**

(What's your name?) said the wolf.

"Huh?" said Jimmy. He seemed puzzled.

(My name is Cassie. What is _your_ name?)

Ooookaay…This was beginning to get a little weird.

"Uh, Lee," I whispered. "This is getting odd. The wolf is talking to us!"

Jimmy looked at the wolf. "Jimmy," he said. "Jimmy Henderson."

The wolf turned toward Lee. (What is _your _name?)

"Lee," said Lee. "_Just_ Lee."

Then it turned toward me. (What is—?)

I couldn't take this anymore. "John Vaugner. There, you happy?"

Just as I thought it couldn't get any weirder, it did. There were a few sickening _cracks_ and _pops_ and the wolf began to change shape.

Its fur receded and short, black hair emerged from the top of its head. Its skin turned dark brown. Out of its paws came Human hands and feet. Its tail shriveled into its backbone. It kept the wolf face through the whole process until the very end. Then it turned into the gentle face of an ordinary looking girl. It was half graceful, half just-plain-weird. Oh yeah, did I mention she was wearing a leotard?

"A werewolf?" murmured Lee with a look of surprise.

"No," said the one who called herself Cassie. "An Animorph."

* * *

**The JJL (And the Animorphs):**

The strange mix of animals continued to stare through the hole in the ceiling.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" said Rusty. "Do the voodoo that you do!"

Marcus inwardly grimaced at the "voodoo" remark and nodded.

"_PUMPERNICKLE!"_

A silvery stream of magic shot out of the end of Marcus's wooden staff. The blue alien saw it coming – of course it does, it four eyes – and reflected the stream with its tail blade.

_FSHZZZT!_

_Uh-oh, _thought Marcus. Rusty and Tomi were paralyzed, but, thanks to Marcus's natural resistance to his own magic, he was not.

The alien and the animals began charging toward him.

"_FORTANO YADI—!" WHAP!_

The alien knocked the staff out of Marcus's hands and the gorilla caught it.

(Not so tough without your little toy are you?)

The gorilla hoisted Marcus up by the collar on his robe.

(Tell us what we want to know!)

Marcus wasn't sure exactly which animal was talking, but he thought it was most likely the tiger by the way it was glaring at him. Marcus had seen weirder, but he was at a slight disadvantage.

The tiger spoke again. (Where are we?)

Marcus thought it best to answer the question and keep the animals distracted. "You are in Lunar City. It-."

(Where is Lunar City?) the tiger cut Marcus off.

"Ahem," Marcus cleared his throat. "Lunar City is the capital of Lunar State, the first United States moon colony."

The animals seemed to stand there for a minute. The gorilla looked at the tiger as if they were talking. The blue alien seemed to join in too. After a few minutes the tiger said (How did we get here?)

"I don't know," said Marcus. "Our arch enemy, Ubus Mellus, created a, uh...um, a 'dimensional vortex' I think? I'm not a scientist, okay! I-."

(Who's Ubus Mellus and what's a dimensional vortex?)

(Prince Jake, I suggest we move to a more secure location. Other people might come here eventually, and we only have thirty of your minutes of morph time left.) It seemed as if that was from the blue alien.

(Alright,) said the tiger. (Anything else we should know?)

_This is it,_ thought Marcus. "Well, there is one thing…"

The gorilla snorted. (What. Do you need to go to the bathroom or something?)

"Uh, no," said Marcus. "But it is pretty important."

(Spit it out!)

Marcus sighed. "You know, I don't need my staff to cast spells."

(Huh!)

"_AURORUS PUMPERNICKLE!"_

_FLASH! FSHZZZT!_

Rusty gulped in air. "Whew! Wow, Marcus. Good thinking."

Tomi walked up to the blue alien and knocked on it. It sounded as if he had knocked on stone. "Blimey Marcus, you should get a medal for this! He's as hard as stone!"

Marcus gave Tomi a look. "That's what the purification spell is _supposed_ to do, Tomi."

Rusty tapped on his watch. "Rusty to JJL HQ. Come in, Chet."

There was a second of static and then Rusty saw Chet's chubby Asian face looking back at him. "I read you loud and clear, Omega Boy." chuckled Chet.

"This is no time for jokes, Chet!" growled Rusty. "John, Jimmy and Lee have gone missing through some…" he looked up at Marcus. "…dimensional vortex."

"Dimensional vortex?" Chet looked perplexed. "Are you sure?"

"No. Ask the mage. Also, search C's files for an alien that looks like this." Rusty pointed his watch's screen toward the blue alien.

"Ooooh," Chet said, delighted. "Looks graceful, yet vicious. Kinda like a cat. I'll look into it."

"You do that," confirmed Rusty. "Snider signing out."

Rusty was about to hit the "OFF" button when he thought of something.

"Oh, and Chet?"

"Yeah?"

"The alien said some thing about thirty minutes of 'morph time' being left."

"Don't worry, Rusty." reassured the computer expert. "I'll make sense of this." Then he added with a smirk "Somebody has to."

"Alright, Chet. Talk to you later. Hey! Were did that 'Omega Boy' comment come from?"

Chet smirked. "You know. Your 'Omega Strike' thingy you do with your sword."

Rusty raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh…" he said slowly.

"Talk to ya later, bye!" said Chet hastily.

Rusty looked up at Tomi and Marcus.

"Well now that there all paralyzed how are we gonna get'em outta here? They must weigh a thousand pounds each!" said the thief.

"Ahem! The spell caster." Marcus cleared his throat loudly.

"What makes you think _you_ count?" smirked Tomi

"Hey!" the mage seemed agitated.

_VRROOOOOOORRRROMMMM!_

The JJL transport ship zoomed in over the hole in the ceiling. Its engines were ablaze and its anti-grav fins were wheezing.

Rusty activated his Alpha jetpack and Marcus began twirling his staff.

"_Levitation Marcus und alien und gorilla und tiger und _annoying fur ball_!"_

"Hey!" said Tomi as he began to levitate with the alien, gorilla, and tiger. "I'm not annoying! And besides, don't you have to say those spells correctly for them to work?"

"That proves something then, doesn't it?"

"Why, you —!"

The pod bay doors closed as they entered the ship. Its engines revved up and its anti-grav fins shimmered. The ship blasts off at amazing speeds to the east. Its destination: JJL HQ.

* * *

**Author's Note (John):** Chapter four is here! By the way, Paddy let me do the Author's Note today. Paddy wanted me to say a few things about this chapter. Let's see… I know! Let's start with me and Jimmy and Lee in the Animorphs world. I was mad because Jimmy knew something that I didn't (which happens a lot). Also, my natural Animalian instincts make me suspicious of people, like the Animorphs.

Things look bleak for the Animorphs in the JJL world. They're paralyzed with less than 30 minutes left in morph! Hopefully Jimmy isn't the only one who reads the Animorphs books in my world.

Paddy asked me to thank his friends Gloria and Sami for checking his chapters for spelling and grammatical errors. If you find any errors that they missed could you please tell me so I can rub it in Paddy's face? Thank you.

John Vaugner ;-)


	5. Questions

**Chapter 5:**

**Questions**

**Disclaimer (John):** Hiya! John here. Paddy's letting me do the disclaimer for this chapter. Hmmm…I wonder. What would happen if I said that Paddy actually _did_ own the Animorphs? Then he would probably get in trouble and me and my buds will never get to be in a FanFic ever again. sigh I guess I have to be fair. Now, let me see. Ahem! Paddey, er, _Chicken_ Paddy is not the owner of the Animorphs characters, powers, or plot, yadda yadda yadda, and the JJL characters, powers and plot do, however, belong to Chicken Paddy, yeah right.

* * *

**Ubus Mellus's Base:**

_(On IO, a moon orbiting Jupiter)_

Ubus steepled his fingers and furrowed his brow. How could this happen? How could he let the stupidly incompetent JJL blow up his _blankity-blank_ Earth facility?

Ubus let out a loud sigh.

"Is something wrong, boss?" Xario asked from the computer.

Ubus glared at the UM, then smiled sweetly. Dario and Xario hated it when Ubus did that. "Why, no," said the evil mastermind. "Why would _anything_ be wrong? I only **LOST THE EARTH BASE!**" Ubus's face contorted into a red rage at the last four words.

"Is that sarcasm?" asked Dario. "You know, they make medicine to help that."

Ubus blasted a hole through Dario's head and the UM vaporized. Ubus turned toward Xario and Xario cringed in his chair.

Ubus said "While the stupid one recuperates, check on the progress of the Dimensional Tunnel."

Xario turned his swivel chair back around toward the computer and began tapping on the keyboard.

"Sir," he said. "You should come and look at this!"

Ubus got out of his seat and looked over Xario's shoulder at the screen. "What?"

"According to the computer," said Xario. "There seems to be heavy damage to the tunnel's structure."

Ubus frowned. This would put considerable setbacks to his Trans-Dimensional Project.

"But," Xario continued. "Our dimensional sensors detected something before the Earth base exploded."

"What did they detect?" Ubus said curiously.

"It seems to be…" the UM tapped more keys.

"What?" Ubus wanted to know.

"This can't be right!"

"What?" Now Ubus _really_ wanted to know.

"Well, according to the computer, there were three outgoing objects…as well as three _incoming_ objects. The objects should have collided in the tunnel."

"But they didn't," said Ubus, thinking.

"No. They didn't, sir. But still, it disobeys the known dimensional rules of a D-Portal and-"

Ubus cut Xario off, "Well, as you know," he began. "That portal was a _flawed_ D-Portal. Tell me how bad the condition of the tunnel is."

"Very. Just the act of getting information from the D-sensors is enhancing the chance of another Dimensional avalanche. Just imagine what a whole D-Portal could do!"

"Then we will have to be careful. I will have to devise a way to repair the tunnel right away." Ubus smirked. "We don't want to deprive the JJL of three of their members for _too_ long now do we?"

Xario was confused. "What makes you think that the outgoing objects were JJL members?"

"If they hadn't been, they would've attacked us by now. I was wondering what was keeping them. I'll be in my lab, working on a sub-space generator." Ubus began to talk to himself. "It should create enough energy to…" He left the room.

There was a whoosh of air and a puff of pale reddish gas compressed to reform Dario.

Dario rubbed the spot on his head where Ubus had blasted him earlier gingerly. "Ugh," he said. "What happened?" He turned toward Xario. "What did I miss?"

"Oh, nothin' much. Just the usual," answered Xario.

Dario nodded. "You mean we're hatching an evil plot to destroy the JJL?"

Xario smirked. "You betcha!"

* * *

**JJL HQ:**

_(Lunar City)_

Chet stared at the picture of the alien that Rusty had sent him. C's files had remained untouched. There was something familiar about that picture, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"Chet," said the computer. "Do you want to run a search like Rusty said?"

"No, C." Chet said to the computer. "I think I know what it is. It's on the tip of my tongue."

"At least look up the other stuff," said C. "You know… the stuff about 'morph time' and you should look reports of animal escapes."

"Wait a second!" Chet's face lit up. "Animals. Morph. They seem to go together!"

"Huh?" the computer said, confused. "You lost me."

_SHOOOOM! VRRRrrrrr!_

A whirring sound filled the air and reverberated down the walls and the JJL spaceship swooped over the JJL HQ and began to land in the garage/hanger.

In the ship, Rusty powered down the transport vehicle and looked back at his fellow JJL members. They were three members smaller than what they had before they had left HQ earlier that day.

Tomi saw the look of worry in Rusty's eyes. "Don't worry, chap," he said. "We'll find them."

Marcus nodded in agreement.

Rusty tapped his watches screen and said "Hey, Chet," he said into his watch. "Could you get some of the guys to come down here and give us a hand with these freaks?"

"They aren't here," said the technician, his voice coming out of the watch crystal clear.

"What do you mean 'they aren't here'?"

"It's 6:30."

"So?"

Chet sighed. "6:30 is their shift to scout around the city looking for bad guys."

"Oh." How could Rusty forget? They had done this for the past three years.

"You can help us then," said Rusty. "There are only three of them."

"Three of what?"

"Animals!"

"Oh. Well, I'm coming down."

Rusty, Marcus, and Tomi went to the cargo area of the ship and opened the large doors. Marcus levitated the creatures onto hover-boards. Rusty and Tomi began to push the tiger, and Marcus waited by the gorilla for Chet. Even though the petrified creatures were on hover-boards they were still pretty hard to push.

Chet walked into the hanger. He watched Rusty and Tomi as they pushed the petrified tiger into the elevator.

"What are you gonna do with them?" asked Chet.

"Do with what?" said Marcus.

"The animals!"

"Oh. Well…I dunno. We'll figure it out when we find John, Jimmy, and Lee."

Chet looked at his watch. "We'd better hurry. They've only got fifteen minutes of morph time left."

"Who does?" Marcus looked confused.

"The animals!"

"Oh. What _is_ 'morph time', by the way?"

Chet shrugged. "I dunno. All I know is that it's been 15 minutes since they said they only had 30 minutes of morph time left."

Rusty and Tomi walked back into the hangar. "Well then," said Tomi. "We better hurry chaps."

Rusty walked into the cargo bay. "Hey, Tomi," he said. "Help with this last one, will ya."

"Righto!" said Tomi. He stepped beside Rusty and helped him push out the alien. Chet stared at it. It looked a lot different in real life than in the picture.

"C'mon, Chet!" said Marcus. "Help me get this gorilla into the elevator."

But Chet just stood there and stared at the alien.

Rusty was concerned. He had never seen Chet do this before.

Rusty stepped toward Chet. "Chet," he said cautiously. "Chet, what's wrong?"

Chet just stared at the alien, bug-eyed.

"He's just scared," said Tomi. "He's never seen such a creepy thing before. Right, Chet?"

"Ani…Ani…Ani…" Chet murmured.

"What are you trying to say, Chet?" asked Marcus.

"Animal?" suggested Rusty.

"Ani-Ani-Ani-Ani…"

"Uhhhhh…" said Tomi.

Marcus pointed his staff at the gorilla and alien creatures. "_Teleportio!_"

The creatures disappeared in a puff of smoke. Tomi glared at Marcus.

"What did you do?" he said.

"I teleported them to the storage room with the tiger," answered Marcus.

"You mean you could do that THE ENTIRE TIME?" yelled Tomi.

Marcus glared back at Tomi. "Yeah. You got a problem with that?"

"You know, for a mage, you're pretty stupid."

"What did I do!" Marcus said as Tomi walked toward the elevator.

"Did I do something wrong! Tomi…" Marcus said as he followed Tomi into the elevator.

Rusty looked back toward Chet, who was still staring at the spot were the alien had been. "Chet," he said. "When you're ready, come back upstairs." Rusty left the hanger via the stairs.

Chet looked around as he broke out of his trance. Now he remembered what the creature was, and that there was definitely more to this than a couple of zoo animals and an Andilite.

"Ani…Ani…Animorphs!" said Chet.

* * *

**Lee:**

Jimmy, John, Cassie; Rachel, who had been the elephant; and Tobias, who was the hawk; and I walked out of what was left of the basement together. There were police and firefighters everywhere outside. Rachel and Cassie morphed into birds of prey and John, Jimmy, and I turned invisible. The Animorphs flew out through a broken window and John, Jimmy, and I snuck out through the back door with the Animorphs' clothes in hand.

(How are you guys doing?) asked Cassie.

I liked her. I didn't _like_ like her, but she was the only one who cared enough not to try and kill us.

(Fine,) I answered Cassie with telepathy.

(Let's go to the park restrooms and demorph,) said Cassie.

(What're you guys going to do?) asked Tobias. (Blonde Boy—)

(Jimmy!) corrected Jimmy.

(Whatever,) said Tobias. (_Jimmy_ may be fine, but you and Dogboy aren't exactly human.)

(Call me "Dogboy" one more time, and I swear…), fumed John. He had been angry ever since we had befriended the Animorphs.

(Don't worry about John,) I said. (He's not always like this. Just in the mornings and whenever we get sucked through dimensional vortexes.)

(I heard that!) said John.

(Are you guys gonna walk to the park?) asked Cassie.

(Of course not,) I said. (We can fly.)

(Of course… How could we forget,) grumbled Rachel. She didn't sound too happy either.

John, Jimmy, and I flew off after the three birds of prey. At first I thought it was odd that they flew so far apart. Then I remembered the Yeerks and how the Animorphs had to stay hidden and inconspicuous. The JJL never had to do that. Heck, we didn't even have code names.

Tobias broke me out of my ponderings. (I'm gonna go back to Ax's place and make sure everything's all right. Then I'll meet you guys at the barn at seven.)

(Alright,) said Rachel.

Tobias split off and headed east while Cassie and Rachel dropped altitude and flew into an empty Port-A-Potty. A minute later Rachel came out, then Cassie.

John quietly floated behind Cassie, while still invisible, and said "you're lucky no one saw two birds fly in and two birds come out."

Cassie jumped about a foot in the air and gave out a quick shriek. John doubled over with silent laughter in midair. I gave him a stern look and he calmed down a bit.

Luckily the park was practically empty.

Cassie looked around cautiously, and then said quietly "You guys never explained how you would blend in."

"Like this!" said John. He turned visible and tapped his watch and an image of a fifteen year old boy with black hair surrounded him. The image looked oddly like John, except it was human. I did the same thing and felt a tingling feeling wash aver me as I was surrounded by a hologram of a fifteen year old boy with red hair. Jimmy turned visible and pointed at his watch.

"Amazing, isn't it?" he said. "I helped developed the 'Holowatch' software myself."

We walked a couple of blocks to a bus stop and sat down. We were the only ones there.

"Tell us more about yourselves." I said.

"No way!" said Rachel. "We aren't going to say anything else until you say something about _yourselves_!"

"Jeez," said John. "All you needed to do was ask a question."

"All right," aid Rachel. She thought for a bit. "How many members are in this so-called 'JJL'?"

John began to count on his fingers. The strange thing about holograms was that in reality, John only has four fingers, but his hologram gave him five, and he appeared to be counting with five fingers on each hand. I didn't know how that worked and I wasn't about to ask Jimmy, he used too many technological words.

"Nine," said John. "There are nine members and one intern."

"Intern?" smirked Rachel.

"Uh, yeah," said John. "Anything else you want to know?"

"What does 'JJL' stand for?" Rachel asked.

"Our names," answered Jimmy. "**J**ohn, **J**immy, **L**ee: **JJL**. You see, we are the three founders of the JJL protection force."

"So, you guys are basically super heroes."

"You could say that," said John.

"Are there any girls in the JJL?" asked Cassie.

The question took us off guard. We had never thought about that.

"Uh…well…not really…" John said hesitantly.

"There are three auxiliary JJL members," I said. "And they are all girls. In fact, we are thinking about adding them to our roster with some other girls."

(Thanks for covering,) John said privately. (I owe you one.)

"You mean," said Rachel. "The JJL is currently a 'boys only' kinda thing?"

"Well," I said. "The girls are actually the girlfriends of us three." I pointed to John, Jimmy, and me. "They're pretty good fighters."

Just then John jumped out of his seat, drew his plasma pistol, and pointed it at the blue mailbox behind us. "Don't move!" he yelled.

People began to stare at us. Wouldn't you if you saw a guy waving a fake-looking gun around and shouting at a mailbox?

"Uh, John? It's just a mailbox." I said.

"No it ain't," said John, still pointing his gun at the mailbox. "I know I heard something, and I saw it wiggle."

People began to shrug and continue with what they had been doing.

"You're right," said the mailbox. "I'm not a mailbox."

"Erik?" Cassie and Rachel said in unison.

"Who?" John and I asked in unison while exchanging glances.

"Ooooh! I like Erik!" said Jimmy.

I felt a familiar tingly feeling wash over me. The hologram of the mailbox expanded to fit the Animorphs and us. In the mailbox's place was a boy about the Animorphs' age.

He looked at John. "You must've heard my hologram rev as a created a holographic bird that landed on the mailbox." He frowned. "That's very odd. You must have very good hearing. You're obviously not who you seem to be"

"OK, Erik," said Rachel. "These are the JJL. John, Jimmy, and Lee," She pointed to each of us as she said our names. "And, JJL, this is Erik King."

"Hi," Erik said as he shook our hands. "Nice to meet you."

"Erik's a Chee," Jimmy explained. "He helps the Animorphs. He's not allowed to fight because of his programming.

Erik looked shocked. "How do you know this? Who are you?"

"Calm down, Erik!" said Jimmy. "It's okay!"

John looked at me. "Let's drop our holograms."

I agreed. I tapped my watch and felt my hologram dissolve. John's hologram disappeared to show his doglike features. Erik stared at John.

"No," he said softly. "It can't be. It's impossible! You were all wiped out by the Howlers!"

"Huh? What're you talking about?" said John. The same thought ran through my mind.

"Don't you know your own heritage?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm-"

"You're a Pemalite!"

"A What-a-lite!"

Erik's form began to dissolve. His human skin disappeared to reveal the silver and ivory skin of a robot. A dog-person robot, for that matter. One with a surprising resemblance to John. The only difference was that one had fur and was wearing clothes while the other had silver and ivory skin.

We all stared for a few minutes. It was amazing!

"No," John said. "I'm an Animalian. Well, actually a half-Animalian. But I'm not a Phlegmalite."

"Pemalite," corrected Jimmy.

"Shut up, Jimmy!" said John. "Look, uh, Erik. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not some extinct alien race."

"But then who do you explain our similarity?" asked Erik.

"Let's just say I'm not from around here," said John.

"Uh, guys," said Rachel. "I'm sorry to break the moment, but we have company.

Through the hologram, we saw some men flanked be very large figures in big, black trench coats. I thought a saw a blade in one of them.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you guys about!" said Erik. "Visser Three has sent a full scale investigation to find out who wrecked his base!"

"And he's using Hork-Bajir to do it?" exclaimed Jimmy.

"Uh, yeah," said Erik, probably still a little freaked out that Jimmy knew everything about the Animorphs.

"They're the bad guys, right?" said John with a devilish smirk. _Uh-oh,_ I thought.

"Yes," said Cassie looking up and down the street for the bus. "This means we need to get out of here as soon as possible!"

John's hands began to glow as he levitated in midair. "How about we take the fight to them?"

"You aren't serious!" exclaimed Erik.

"I knew it…" I mumbled.

"LET'S GET'EM!" shouted John and he flew straight out of the hologram.

"Let's do it!" agreed Rachel as shaggy, brown fur began to creep up her body. "You know, I think I'm beginning to like John."

"Oh, boy…"

* * *

**JJL HQ:**

_(Lunar City)_

Chet walked into the main room. Rusty, Tomi, and Marcus looked up at him from the computer. "Feeling better?" asked Rusty.

"Fine," said Chet. "Yeah, just fine. I don't know what came over me, bet I'm fine now. As fine as fine can be. Yesireebob. Fine, fine, fine. In fact, fine is my middle name. You could just call me Chet Fine Chang. I'm just fantastically fine. Fine, fine, fine…"

"Um…uh…Chet?" said Rusty.

"…fine, fidly-fine, fee fie fo fine, finey fine fine…"

"Chet," Rusty said again more irritated.

"…fine, yessir I'm just as fine as fine can-"

"CHET!" Rusty, Tomi, and Marcus yelled in unison.

"What is the matter with you today?" asked Rusty. "You've been acting weird ever since we got back!"

"Maybe he's sick?" suggested Tomi.

"I already told you guys that I'm fine, A-OK, never been better!" said Chet.

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry," said Rusty. "Just look up the info that I told you to look up."

"Can do," said Chet. He was about to leave the room when he stopped, turned around and said "By the way, were did you guys put the creatures?"

"In the evidence room," said Marcus.

"Thanks," said Chet, and he headed down the hallway. He stopped at the door to Marcus's room.

Chet took out his modified key card. "I hope this works," he said.

He slid the card through the card slot on the key pad. Nothing happened at first, but then…

_EEENK!_

The red light on the key pad flashed and there was a gruff beep.

"What!" said Chet in disbelief. "Why didn't it work?"

"Because you didn't use the magic word," C's voice emanated from the key pad in a taunting sing-song voice.

"Please?" asked Chet.

C sighed. She projected a full-size hologram of herself out of the key pad. In her holographic state, it is pretty difficult to tell she's not real. In her holographic state, she has auburn, shoulder length hair, Caucasian skin, a full-body greenish suit, and a strange looking silver hair band that helps her keep in touch with the JJL computer systems.

"Marcus changes his card code and key pad number code every chance he gets," she said.

"Well," said Chet. "Could you open the door for me?"

"What?" said C, taken aback. "And violate Marcus's privacy? You can't make me!" She turned her face away from Chet and closed her eyes. "And don't even _try_ using your puppy face on me."

"I would _never_ do that!" Chet said, while using the puppy face.

"So…you're not using it now?" asked C.

"Of course not," said Chet, while still using the puppy look.

C peeked over at Chet cautiously and saw his puppy face. "Eek! Oh, alright, you got me. But this is the _only_ time!"

"Some high tech computer you are," Chet said as Marcus's door opened. He was about to walk in when he stopped himself.

"Whoops! I shouldn't forget about Marcus's magical traps. I got just the thing here," he reached into his pocket and pulled out a vile full of a flowing substance. "100 pure magic. Here goes!" He threw the vile into the middle of the room.

_Pshhhhht! FSZZT!_

Magical light filled the room and there were a few sparks and pops as the magical enchantments were dispelled.

Chet walked into the room and began searching through Marcus's chest of drawers.

"What are you looking for, anyway?" asked C.

"This!" said Chet as he pulled a vile full of some sort of glowing substance out of a drawer."

"Is that 100 pure magic?" asked C.

"Yup I need this baby to…what?"

C was on the ground laughing her holographic head off.

"HA HA HA! You are sooo stupid!"

Chet looked confused as he looked at the vile of magical energy. "But I…ooooh…" It dawned on Chet what he had just done. "D'oh!"

C was beginning to catch her breath now (not that she needed to breath). "So let me get this straight," she said. "You used a vile of magic to disenchant Marcus's room, just to get another vile of magic?" She began to snicker again.

"It's not funny," grumbled Chet has he walked down the hallway to the equipment room.

"Oh, it is absolutely hilarious!" said C. "But, what do you need a vial of magic for anyway?"

"I'm gonna free some innocents," said Chet, as he inserted the vile into his energy-disc thrower.

------------------------------------------------------

Ax couldn't move! He had tried, and he had tried hard. All he could do was see and think. He was in a dark room with a lot of shelves of equipment. He tried thought-speak.

(Prince Jake. Can you here me?)

(Ax?) said Jake. (You're in here too? I would look around, but I can't move my eyes!)

(I'm fine to, thank you very much!) said Marco, indignantly. (Well, except for the whole being paralyzed part.)

(You only have seven of your minutes left in morph,) said Ax.

(I _so_ did not need to here that!) said Marco.

(We need to do something. Fast!) said Jake. He couldn't keep the terror out of his voice.

(Prince Jake, I believe someone is coming!) said Ax.

(Or something,) said Marco.

(Don't call me "Prince") said Jake.

A door opened and bright light spilled into the room. A chubby human boy walked into the room, and a girl that seemed to give off a greenish light followed. The boy had some sort of large, bulky device strapped to his wrist.

The device was metallic. It was rectangular were it was attached to the forearm. It had a screen and a few buttons and dials. At the end closer to the boy's hand was a crescent shape.

"Can you guys hear me?" said the boy. "My name is Chet. I think I know your guys' names. You're the Animorphs."

(How does he know about us?) Jake said privately to Ax and Marco.

(I don't know!) said Marco, agitated. (Why are you asking me?)

"Don't worry guys, I'll get you out," said the boy. He lifted the arm with the device on it and pointed it at the Animorphs.

"Uh…Chet," said the girl. "Are you sure you know what you're doing. How do you know that centaur thing won't cut your head off as soon as you unpetrify it?"

The boy ignored her. "Magic's loaded, systems are up, batteries are charged, underwear is clean…"

"I did _not_ need to know that," said the girl.

"…let's roll!" The crescent shape of the device began to glow with golden energy.

(Uh, Ax?) said Marco. (What's that?)

(To be honest Marco,) said Ax. (He is probably going to kill us. But seeing his friendliness toward us that is highly unlikely.)

(Thanks, Ax,) said Marco. (You have a knack for making people fell better.)

(Thank you, Marco.)

(That was sarcasm, Ax)

(Oh.)

"Alright," said the boy. "3…2...1…_Dispel magicka!_"

The energy in the crescent turned green and it formed a glowing disc. The disc shot out and hit the Animorphs.

Ax felt a sudden dizziness come over him, followed by weakness. Ax blinked a couple times to clear this feeling. Wait a second…he blinked! Ax turned his stalk eyes toward Marco and Jake, and they too were beginning to move.

"So," said the boy. "How do you feel?"

Jake growled and Marco began to grunt. Ax moved into a fighting stance.

"Uh…" said the boy.

* * *

**Author's Note (Lee):** Lee here. I have been asked to present chapter 5. Well, here it is.

**(Paddy):** Well…

**(Lee):** Well what?

**(Paddy)** Well, aren't you going to tell them about it!

**(Lee):** What is there to tell? They just read the chapter, didn't they?

**(Paddy): **gives exasperated sigh Aren't there any parts that you want to highlight for the reader?

**(Lee):** No.

**(Paddy): **Well, do it anyway!

**(Lee):** Okay, Okay! Sheesh! Now…were to begin. How about the beginning. Well, Ubus Mellus seems to be hatching another evil plot to destroy the JJL, as always. The question is 'What exactly _is_ he plotting?'"

Umm…It seems Chet and the rest of the JJL are having a hard time with the Animorphs. Meanwhile, John, Jimmy, and I are in the middle of a secret interplanetary battle.

What else? Oh yeah! Paddy wanted me to post this:

**(Paddy):**

G8Master: Thanks for giving me your helpful encouragement! Give you opinion on the longest chapter so far.

Vicky: I hope I answered your question. I hop you liked this chapter. I'm thinking of introducing the female characters pretty soon. Maybe even next chapter!

Traycon3: Thanks for your help on getting me setup on my first FanFic.

Gloria & Sammie: Thanks for painstakingly checking my chapters for grammatical and spelling errors. Here's another big heaping helping of words to sort through. Kudos to you!

**(Lee):** Well I hope you liked this chapter as much as I did narrating a section of it. See ya in chapter 6!

(P.S.—20 pages on Microsoft Word! The longest chapter so far!)

Lee :-D


	6. Alliance

**Chapter 6:**

**Alliance**

**Disclaimer (Lee):** Alright. Lee here. Paddy has asked me to do the disclaimer for this chapter. But I don't see why it's needed.

**(Paddy):** Lee…

**(Lee):** I mean, shouldn't people who have read the _Animorphs _series automatically know that he doesn't own them?

**(Paddy):** Lee…

**(Lee):** And do the JJL _really_ belong to him? I think that can be debated. I-

**(Paddy):** LEE!

**(Lee):** What?

**(Paddy):** Just get it over with.

**(Lee):** But all I'm saying is-

**(Paddy):** I SAID…

**(Lee):** All right, all right. Ahem Chicken Paddy does not own the _Animorphs _characters, powers, or plot. He does, however, own the JJL characters, powers, and plot. looks at Paddy I don't agree that you own-

**(Paddy):** On with the story!

* * *

**Ubus Mellus's Base:**

_(On IO, a moon orbiting Jupiter)_

Dario and Xario stood next to Ubus Mellus's lab with their ears to the door. _Zzap! Sizzle, sizzle. _That was all they heard from the room on the other side.

"What is he doing in there?" asked Dario.

"I don't know," answered Xario. "He said he was going to build some sort of sub-space thing-a-ma-jigger."

"To do what?" asked Daio.

"I think it has something to do with repairing the D-tunnel," said Xario.

"What's wrong with the D-tunnel?"

"Weren't you listening when I told Ubus?"

"I was vapor, remember."

"Oh yeah. Well, it's in extremely bad shape. There's a big chance of another dimensional avalanche."

"A dimensional what?" Dario looked confused.

"You aren't too bright, are you?" retorted Xario.

"Well it's not _my_ fault!" Dario said very loudly to the lab door. "It's the stupid 'evil mastermind's' fault!"

"Uh, Dario…" cautioned Xario.

"I'm not finished yet," Dario said to Xario. He turned back to the lab door. "If the genius would tell us of his 'plan', I'm sure that-"

_BLAM!_

The lab door had opened and a red beam of light vaporized Dario.

Ubus turned toward Xario. He gave Xario a datapad.

"Take this to the computer and check for faults. I'll be in my lab." Ubus walked back into his lab and closed the door.

Xario looked at the spot where Dario had been. He sighed. "You should have kept your big mouth shut." Xario walked down the hall toward the computer room.

* * *

**Rachel:**

I felt the shaggy brown hair begin to cover my body. I began to swell up. I hurried to get my clothes off without damaging them. Just then my claws sprouted from the ends of my fingers and destroyed my denim jacket. "Ggrrough, mraggn," I said. I meant to say "Oh, man." My teeth had taken place of my human teeth. I fell over on all fours. I was the grizzly bear.

(Let's do it!) I said in thought-speak.

Cassie rolled her eyes. She had only just started her wolf morph. "If Marco were here," she said. "He would say 'this is _insane_!'"

Erek looked mortified. "I agree! You guys are exposing yourselves! What if the Yeerks capture you?"

_KA-POW!_

John had punched a Hork-Bajir and sent it flying through the air.

(With these guys helping us?) I said. (You don't need to worry, Erek.)

I charged out of the hologram bubble with Jimmy and Lee close behind.

"Andalites!" shouted one of the Human-Controllers. "Andalites and…uh…some more flying aliens! We need backup!"

Another Human-Controller took out a cell phone and began speaking into it. At least until I smacked him down with a semi-sized bear paw.

_TSSSEWWWW! TSSSEWWWW!_

Dracon blasts were firing everywhere. Some people walking by on the street began to fire Dracon beams at us.

"Nice trick," said John. "Wanna see mine?"

_TSSEEEEOWWW!_

Blue beams fired out of his hands and knocked some of the Controllers down.

_TSSSIIIIWW!_

Red-hot beams blasted from his eyes and melted some of the Controller's Dracon weapons.

_ZZZAAPP!_

Lee fired lightning bolts at the Hork-Bajir-Controllers.

_WHAPWHAPWHAPWHAP!_

In the blink of an eye, Jimmy had run around and smacked down several Human-Controllers.

_TSSSEWWWW!_

I felt a Dracon beam slice through my shoulder. I roared. John looked at who had shot me and fired another of his blue beams at people.

(Rachel, behind you!) Cassie yelled. I had been so busy admiring the JJL's awesome powers that I hadn't been paying attention to what was going on around me.

I swung around and saw that I was already too late. The Hork-Bajir had come in for the kill and I had no time to swing my slow bear claws to stop it.

_KA-POW!_

John swung his glowing, blue fists and knocked the attacker into next month.

(Uh, thanks,) I said.

"No biggie," said John.

_WEEEOOO! WEEEOOO! WEEEOOO!_

"Here comes the backup," said Lee.

He was right. There were sirens and police cars were coming up the street.

_TSSEEEOWWW!_

Red-hot beams shoot from John's eyes and melt one of the car's tires. The car careened into another police car.

"Score one for the good guys!" said John.

I noticed that John, Jimmy, and Lee did not seem to take fighting so seriously. John even seemed to be enjoying himself.

Jimmy was zooming around with his superspeed, Lee was blasting people with blue beams, and John was sending Hork-Bajir flying.

_SCREEEEE!_

The police cars screech to a halt and policemen jump out.

"FREEZE!"

"Are these guys Controllers?" asks John.

"Shoot the Andalite bandits!" shouts one of the policemen. They begin to fire Dracon beams at us.

"Yep," said Jimmy. "Definitely Controllers."

_BANG! BANG! BANG!_

The policemen began to fire their guns at us! John, Jimmy, and Lee put a weird blue orb around us that stopped the bullets. John then flew out of the shield and fired heat beams at the Controllers' guns. Jimmy ran around super fast and knocked the policemen to the ground. Lee turned off the shield and started fighting the Hork-Bajir.

I ran over a bulldozed a Hork-Bajir down an open manhole.

(Hey guys!) I said. (Shove'em down here!)

John's fist glowed as he pounded a Hork-Bajjir through a closed manhole cover. "Oops," he said. "Oh well. It was in the general area."

"Jimmy," said Lee. "get the 'Big Flash' ready."

("Big flash"?) asked Cassie. (What's that?)

"Just cover your eyes," said John.

* * *

**John:**

Jimmy tapped his watch and started to look for the Big Flash. Not only do our watches tell us the time and grant us realistic holographic disguises, but they also come equipped with a Cyberspace converter. It can transfer real objects into data and store them in its memory, just like how a computer stores your saved games. This is what Jimmy has told me anyway.

"Uh, John," said Jimmy. "I don't have the Big Flash with me."

"What?" I said. "What do you mean you don't have the Big Flash!"

"Well," said Jimmy. "I was upgrading it and I must've forgotten to put it back into my watch."

(Big Flash?) asked Cassie.

(Into you _what_!) Rachel said, bewildered

I ignored them. "We can't just use the Little Flash!" I raved. "There are too many witnesses, and they would get away before they got to them!"

(What the _heck_ is going on!) yelled Rachel. She growled a grizzly bear growl to emphasize her words so I wouldn't ignore her again.

Jimmy held up the Little Flash. It looked like a little red sphere with a datapad on its side. "I have an idea!" he said. "We could just have Erek use his holographic abilities to copy the light signature!"

"Will it work?" I asked.

"Yeah," said Jimmy. "It should."

_WEEEOOO! WEEEOOO! WEEEOOO! SCREEEEE!_

A couple of S.W.A.T. vans screeched to a halt and Human-Controllers in S.W.A.T. uniforms with some Hork-Bajir came piling out of the backs.

"Then you better get your butt movin'!" I yelled at Jimmy. But by that time, he was already on his way.

* * *

**JJL HQ:**

_(Lunar City)_

"AAAAAUUGGHH!" That was from Chet.

Chet ran from the evidence room and ran down the hall, with the Animorphs in hot pursuit.

"I'll get Rusty and the others!" said C.

"No need!" yelled Rusty as he plowed through C's holo-projection and chased after Chet and the Animorphs.

Chet's brain was in overdrive. What would be a safe place to not get killed by the Animorphs, and keep the JJL from killing the Animorphs? _I got it!_ thought Chet.

Chet made a left turn and tapped on his watch's screen. A couple of heavy metal doors opened and he leapt through them. The doors began to close. The Animorphs just got inside when the doors locked shut.

Rusty banged on the door. "Chet! Let us in, Chet!" Rusty yelled.

The intercom next to the door crackled. Chet's voice came from it. "No!" He said. "Let me reason with the Animorphs."

"Animorphs?" said Tomi. "What in the 'eck are Animorphs?"

"Reason with them?" asked Marcus. "You can't reason with zoo animals and an alien psycho!"

On the other side of the door Chet rolled his eyes. "In case you haven't noticed, John classifies as an 'alien psycho'."

The Animorphs began to block in around Chet.

---------------------------------

Jake took a long look at the boy. He seemed as if he almost knew what was going on.

(Ax,) Jake said privately. (Ask the kid if he knows what is going on. Marco and I need to keep suspicion off us.)

(Yes Prince Jake,) said Ax. Ax changed to opened thought-speak.

(Who are you? What is going on here!) Ax tried his best to sound and look threatening. Maybe he was a little **too** threatening because boy pressed a button on his watch and said "The training room is now armed. Come any closer and a torrent of creatures from your darkest nightmares will begin to materialize into the room. Kill me, and my friends on the other side of the door will come bashing through."

(We don't have time for this!) said Marco. (Just knock him out, Ax!)

Ax took another step closer.

"I'm warning you!" said the boy.

(Knock him out,) said Jake. (We could use his watch to find a way out of here.)

(Yes, Prince Jake,) said Ax.

(Don't call me "Prince",) said Jake.

(Yes, Prince Jake,) said Ax. He whipped out his tale blade and struck the boy on the side his head with the flat side.

_FWAP!_

The boy stumbled for a bit, shook his head, and then stood up straight.

(What the…) said Marco.

"Listen," said the boy. "Calm down. I'll give you all the answers you need to know. Just trust me. Please."

A banging sound came from the door. "Come on, Chet! Let us in! You're not safe alone with them!"

"You're not helping!" Chet yelled back.

The boy called Chet looked and Jake the tiger, Marco the gorilla, and at Ax the Andalite. He held out his hand. "Truce?"

Ax looked at Jake. (Should we trust this human?) he asked.

(It looks as if we have no other choice,) Jake said bluntly.

(I don't like this,) said Marco. (His buddies are the ones that took us here in the first place!)

(Do you have a better idea, Marco?)

Marco just stood there with his gorilla arms crossed. (No,) he said grudgingly. (But I still don't like this.)

(Go ahead, Ax,) said Jake.

Ax took Chet's hand and shook it.

(Truce,) said Jake.

* * *

**Erek King:**

I couldn't believe this! The JJL were out tossing Human-Controllers around in broad daylight in a highly populated area. They didn't seem to care about subtly at all. They actually seemed to be enjoying the battle. I had experienced battle only once, and it will haunt me for the rest of my life. And Chee have _very_ long lives. John was _definitely_ not a Pemalite.

Just to make things worse, S.W.A.T. vans were pulling up.

One of the JJL members was rushing out of the battle toward me. It was Jimmy.

He turned invisible. A moment later he reappeared inside my holographic bubble.

"I need your help!" he said.

"I can't fight," I said. "My programming restricts…"

Jimmy cut me off. "I know all about how your Chee programming keeps you from doing violent acts." He held up an object that looked like a little red sphere with a datapad on its side. It was smaller than the palm of his hand.

He handed me the sphere. "I need you," he said, "to copy the light signature this gives off. But, I don't want _any_ of the light to touch John, Lee, Rachel, Cassie, or me."

"What does it do?" I asked skeptically.

Jimmy told me.

"Fine," I said. "I'll do it, but on one condition."

"What?"

"You have to promise that you will not go fighting in broad daylight with a ton of witnesses again."

"You'll have to talk with John about that."

_CRASH!_

A Hork-Bajir got slammed into the ground right next to my holographic bubble.

"You'd better go," said Jimmy.

"I'll need a boost," I said.

* * *

**Lee:**

The Hork-Bajir John had punched landed near the spot where Erek's holographic bubble was.

"John!" I scolded.

"Sorry!" he said.

Then I saw Erek's holographic bubble disappear. Jimmy was holding out his hands and Erek was surrounded by blue energy. Then Erek jumped and Jimmy telekinetically thrusted him up in the air at the same time. Erek went soaring.

"What the…" said John.

Jimmy zoomed over to us. "C'mon! We've got to grab Rachel and Cassie and get them out of range."

"Right," said John. "Jimmy, you grab Cassie, and I'll—ACK!"

John's left arm got sliced off by a Hork-Bajir's blade.

_KAPOW!_

Jimmy's feet glowed and he Power Kicked it into nest Tuesday.

(Are you alright!) Cassie said hysterically.

"Yeah, yeah," John said calmly. He turned to Jimmy. "You get Cassie and I'll get Rachel. Lee, carve a path."

I started to kick, punch, and Power Beam everyone in my way back to the bus stop. Erek had reached the apex of his jump.

"LOOKIE HERE!" Erek said as loud as he could. Everyone looked up.

(Close your eyes!) I said telepathically to Rachel and Cassie.

_FLASH!_

* * *

**JJL HQ:**

_(Lunar City)_

Rusty stood in the JJL library. The creatures and what was left of the JJL had gathered in there to calm down and listen to Chet tell the story of the Animorphs. When Chet had opened the door to the holo-room the beasts were gone and there were humans in their place, except one. The funky looking centaur with the scorpion tail was still there. It glared at him with all four of its eyes.

Tomi couldn't believe what he was hearing. Chet sounded like he had gone off the deep end. But it did kinda make a little sense, although, Chet had been locked up with the creatures for five minutes. There was no telling what Chet was forced to say, if that was even Chet.

Marcus just looked at Jake and Marco. He tried to make them out and listen to Chet's story. Marcus sensed a lot of pain in them, too much pain for kids their age. They seemed almost hollow, empty of the happiness of childhood. Marcus was older than the rest of the JJL and a little more mature. He noticed things like this.

Chet finished the story of the Animorphs. He looked around at his friends. Tomi seemed somewhat skeptical, Marcus just looked at Jake and Marco, and Rusty and Ax glared at each other.

"Come on guys," said Chet. "Can't you stop being suspicious of each other just long enough to see this as an opportunity?"

"No," said Marco.

Chet ignored him. "The Animorphs could help us find John, Jimmy, and Lee. Ax probably knows enough about alternate dimensions and dimensional portals to…"

"Dimensional _what!_" interrupted Marco.

"Dimensional portals," said Chet. "Anyway…"

"Are 'dimensional portals' big, round, yellow, and freaky looking."

"Yeah," Chet said slowly.

"Could it be?" said Jake.

(It is highly probable,) said Ax.

"What?" asked Chet.

"What exactly happened?" asked Jake.

"Well," sad Chet. "The JJL had gone to…"

"I don't think they need to know," interrupted Rusty.

"Rusty, please!" begged Chet.

"I agree with Rusty," said Tomi. "We don't know if these _creatures _can be trusted." Tomi put an emphasis on the word "creatures".

"Hey!" Marco was offended. "Who are you callin' a creature, dogboy?"

Tomi didn't like that. "Why, you…"

An argument broke out.

"Guys!" said Chet. No one listened. "Guys, listen!" Once again, no one listened. "Please!"

Marcus slammed his staff into the ground.

"_SILENCIO!"_

All the noise in the room ceased. Tomi and Marco were still moving there mouths, but no sound was coming out. They stopped and stared at Marcus.

"Go ahead, Chet," said Marcus.

"Thanks," said Chet. "If we work together we can solve each other's problems. You want to know what happened? All right then. The JJL had gone to a warehouse to…"

Chet told of the JJL's adventure at Ubus Mellus's base. He told of the dimensional portal and the explosion. Even though Chet had not been there, he had downloaded the information from the watches after Rusty had contacted him.

"…and here we are now," finished Chet. "Was that similar to what happened to you?"

Marco was still silenced so he just glared.

Ax looked at Jake. (May I, Prince Jake?)

Jake nodded. "Go ahead, Ax."

Ax told of the Animorphs' adventure at Visser Three's base. He told of battle, Visser Three's gadget that he attached to his tail blade. Then he told of the portal and the explosion.

(…and when returned to consciousness, we were here,) finished Ax.

Chet thought for a minute. "Dimensional travel," said Chet. "My theory is that the gadgets that Visser Three and Ubus Mellus had were able to cut rifts through the dimensions."

Jake spoke up. "But were they supposed to do the weird explosion thing?"

"I don't think so," said Chet. "Do you know at what time Visser Three tore open the portal?"

"Uh…" said Jake.

(At approximately 4:45 pm.) said Ax.

Chet tapped his watch a couple of times. "Where is it?" he mumbled. "I can't find the recordings."

C appeared. "4:45," she said. She handed Chet a data file. "Be more careful of where you place your info." She turned toward Marco. "Do you have a staring problem?"

Marco's face turned red and he turned away.

"I wonder how long I should keep you silenced," said Marcus.

Marco glared at Marcus.

Chet was tapping on his watch some more. "If Visser Three and Ubus Mellus had opened the portals at the exact same instance, it might have created a dimensional vacuum."

"Is there any way to reverse this?" asked Jake.

"I don't know," said Chet. "Jimmy knows more about Dimensional Theory than me."

"But we don't know where Jimmy is," Tomi pointed out.

"Yes we do," said Chet. "Think about it! If Jake, Marco, and Ax are over here, then that means…"

"John, Jimmy, and Lee are in the Animorphs' world," finished Rusty.

"Oh, boy," everyone except Ax said at the same time.

"It looks like we still need to help each other out after all," said Jake.

Jake held out his hand toward Rusty. Rusty still wasn't sure if this was a good idea, but it seemed as if he had no other choice.

"Truce?" asked Jake.

Rusty shook Jake's hand. "Truce,"

_DING-DONG!_

"Is that a doorbell?" asked Marco, finally relieved of the silencing curse.

"Is there something wrong with that?" asked Tomi.

"Well," said Marco. "It just seems a little low-tech for guys like you."

C was tapping on her holographic control console in front of her and her eyes widened.

"It's the E-Force!" she shrieked.

"Not the E-Force!" Rusty said. "Not now!"

"What's wrong?" asked Jake. "Who's the E-Force?"

"Is it a group of super villains?" asked Marco, half jokingly.

"No," said Marcus. "Worse. It's the adult version of the JJL."

"What?" said Marco.

"Okay," began Rusty. "There are two groups of superheroes in Lunar City, the adult group and the teen group. The adult group is known as the E-Force. The 'E' meaning Empowered. The teen group is us, the JJL."

"What does 'JJL' stand for?" ask Marco.

"It's our leaders' first initials, John, Jimmy, and Lee."

"Talk about corny," Marco muttered to himself.

_DING-DONG! DING-DONG!_

"Rusty!" C said impatiently. "What do you want me to do!"

"I'm thinking! I'm thinking!" said Rusty.

_DINGDONGDINGDONGDINGDONG!_

"I've got it!" said Chet.

"Got what?" asked C.

"C," said Chet. "Go and distract the E-Force." He turned toward Ax, Marco, and Jake. "You guys stay here." Chet ran off into another room.

"What is that boy planning?" Rusty said as C disappeared.

Chet ran back into the room with three jars in his arms. Each jar had a fleshy lump in it.

"Ewwww! What are those?" said Tomi, with a look of disgust on his face.

"These," said Chet, "are samples of John, Jimmy, and Lee. _Cloned_ samples, mind you."

"Now what?" said Marco.

Chet smirked. "I need you three to morph into John, Jimmy, and Lee."

The Animorphs looked dumbfounded.

"Listen," said Chet. "If you morph into John, Jimmy, and Lee the E-Force won't suspect anything. If the E-Force doesn't suspect anything, you're safe."

"I don't know," said Jake. "It seems awful risky."

(We do not have much time, Prince Jake,) said Ax. (We need to decide now.)

Jake thought for a bit. "I say we do it," he said. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Right?"

"No!" said Marco. "This is insane! We have no idea what we're walking into! Help me out, Ax."

Ax shook his head. (I am afraid I will have to follow Prince Jake on this matter, Marco.)

"All right then," said Chet. "You'd better hurry and acquire these things before the tissue dies. They've already been out of the 'fridge too long."

Jake acquired the skin-colored lump with blonde hairs in it, Ax acquired the pinkish lump with red shell fragments in it, and Marco acquired the grayish lump with brown and black fur in it.

"This is totally sick," said Marco. "Not to mention insanely weird!"

--------------------------

Eric Vaugner stood impatiently outside of the JJL headquarters. Eric Vaugner was a human in his mid-thirties. He had handsome black hair and wore a metal breastplate. Next to him were his associates from the E-Force: John Trustman and Arabie. Eric was the leader of the E-Force and the father of John Vaugner. You may be wondering to yourself, _Self, if Eric is human, why is John an Animalian?_ I could explain this right now, but I believe that is a story for another time.

"…and I'm sure you'll be glad to know that weapon systems are working at 200 efficiency," said C. "Also the ant-matter dispersal system is…"

"C," interrupted Eric Vaugner. "Why are you stalling?"

"Stalling?" C said nervously. "Why would I be stalling?"

"That is a question that I would like the answer to. Has something happened?"

"Happened?" said C. She looked around nervously. "Nope! Nope, nope, nope! Nothing wrong here!"

"You're a bad liar, C" said John Trustman.

"Open the door, C," Arabie said warningly.

"But, but, but…" stammered C.

Eric Vaugner reached through C's holographic body and opened the door.

"What the…" said Eric.

"Oh, my…" said Arabie.

"Hmmm…" said John Trustman.

"It's not my fault!" cried C. "They forced me to do it! They…they…"

"They made you clean the room?" said Eric

"Huh?" said C.

The E-Force saw Rusty, Marcus, Tomi, Chet, John, Jimmy, and Lee standing in the middle of the room. They all wore sheepish grins.

"Uh, hi Mr. Vaugner!" said Rusty. "What're you here for?"

Eric looked at each of the JJL members suspiciously. "I came here to check on you boys and look at your mission data," he said.

"Don't worry about that," said Chet. "I already downloaded the mission data into the main computer network. You should be able to view it at the E-Force palace."

"Alright," said Eric Vaugner. He looked at each of the boys again. "Are you sure everything's alright?"

"Yup!" said John. "Everything's A-OK Mr. V!"

Eric was taken aback. "Mr. V? John! I…"

_BLEEP! BLEEP! BLEEP!_

Eric, Mr. Trustman, and Arabie looked at their watches.

"There's an emergency in New York," said Eric Vaugner. He pointed a finger at John. "When I get back we're going to have a little talk."

"Uh, sure thing, uh, Sir!" said John.

--------------------------

The E-Force turned around and closed the door.

Everyone let out a loud "Whew!"

Tomi turned to "John"-a.k.a. Marco morphed as John. "Eric Vaugner is John's dad, you dunce!" he said.

"How was I supposed to know?" yelled Marco. "They look nothing alike!"

"Now we know this information for future reference, Marco," said Ax morphed as Lee. "Innnnnffffffforrrrrrrmmmmationnnnn…mmmmmmmaaaatttttionnnn. I do not believe I have ever morphed this species before. It is surprisingly similar to a human."

"Future reference?" said Marco. "Who said we were going to do this again? I certainly am not!"

The front door swung open. In the doorway stood a girl with long, black hair with the ends died brown. She wore a revealing green tank top. "Hi John, baby," she said. "Ready for our date tonight?"

"Although…I could make an exception," said Marco.

* * *

**Author's Note (Jimmy): **That's it for Chapter 4: Alliance. Let's see, were to begin…

**(Wish-Wish): **How about you begin with me! -D

**(Jimmy):** What the? Wish-Wish? What're you doing here, you annoying mini-drake.

**(Wish-Wish): **I'm a mega-magical creature. I can go ANYWHERE! Hee hee hoo ha ha ha!

**(Jimmy): **Listen you scaly little…_thing!_ I'm trying to do a chapter summary so you better just leave me alone!

**(Wish-Wish): **Don't worry. I'll be a little angel.

**(Jimmy):** Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Now let's begin. Ubus Mellus is still planning something and he killed Dario, again. John, Lee, Cassie, Rachel and I had gotten out of the battle but John got his arm cut off by a…

**(Wish-Wish): **HOT DOG!

**(Jimmy):** What! John got his arm cut off by a Hork-Bajir. Not a hot dog.

**(Wish-Wish): **But hot dogs taste better.

**(Jimmy):** I don't care how hot dogs taste. Now just sit there and shut up! If Paddy were here he would…sigh never mind. Now where was I? Ah, yes. Ahem It seems that Marco is having a hard time adjusting to the JJL world hopefully he will straighten out enough to be able to trust Rusty and Chet. He didn't seem to mind Jenny very much though. Ax is…

**(Wish-Wish): **BBQ SAUCE!

**(Jimmy):** BBQ sauce! What the heck is that supposed to mean?

**(Wish-Wish): **Do you taste like BBQ sauce?

**(Jimmy):** That's it! That's the final straw! Out! Out! OUT!

**(Wish-Wish): **slurp

**(Jimmy):** Ugh! You licked me! Come here you little…!

**(Paddy): **enters the room and sees Jimmy, soaking wet, chasing Wish-Wish while shooting power beams Uh…did I miss something?

Well, while I'm here I guys I'll add my thank-you's:

G8Master: thank you for your never-ending enthusiasm; your encouragement helps out a lot

Vicky: yup, Ax and the others are fine, yet Marco seems a little high strung

Traycon3: thank you again for your help; I couldn't have gotten this far without you

Gloria & Sami: thank you, once again, for checking all of my work. Here's another 19 pages of stuff to look through

I would also like to apologize to all of you for taking so long to finish this chapter. I'll try to do better. Your enthusiasm always helps, so thanks. I hop you enjoy this chapter and just sign off. I'll…

**(Jimmy):** Come back here you stupid nitwit!

**(Wish-Wish): **You have to catch me first, Blondie! Hee, hee!

**(Jimmy):** Grrrr!

**(Paddy): **Hey! Watch out!

**(Jimmy & Paddy):** crash into each other and go tumbling around

**(Wish-Wish): **Awww. Did wittle Jimmy fall down and get a boo-boo?

**(Jimmy):** Wish-Wish. I'm going to kill you. Slowly and painfully.


	7. Answers

**Chapter 7:**

**Answers**

**Disclaimer (Jimmy): **Looks around Good, I'm alone. Alright, now to start the disclaimer. Chicken Paddy does not own…

**(Wish-Wish): **MONKIES!!!!!!

**(Jimmy): **Rrrrrrrrgh! WISH-WISH!! Could you just stop following me!?!

**(Wish-Wish): **Awww… You look so cute when you're angry.

**(Jimmy): **Let's see how cute I look when I'm wringing your neck!

**(Paddy): **Walks in and shakes head I'll do the disclaimer. I do not own the Animorphs powers, characters, or plot. I do, however, own the JJL characters powers and plot. On with the story.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Ubus Mellus's Base:**

_(On __IO__, a moon orbiting Jupiter)_

"Got any threes?" asked Dario.

"Go fish," replied Xario.

Dario reached into the pail of water and pulled out a fish. The fish had a 7 on it.

"These Earth games are weird," said Dario as he tried to keep his fish from flopping too much.

"Dario! Xario!"

"Eep!" squeaked Dario as he jumped to attention with Xario.

Ubus Mellus walked into the room holding a large metal cylinder with wires sticking out of it.

"Did you finish checking the data?" he asked Xario.

"Yep," replied Xario, pulling the datapad out of his pocket. "Here it is."

Ubus took the datapad and looked it over.

"Why don't you two go check on our 'visitors'?" he said.

"If you don't mind sir," said Dario, "we were in the middle of a game of 'Go Fish'."

"Wha—?" Ubus looked behind Dario at the pail full of fish and the fish with numbers on them.

"You stupid..." Ubus began. "Oh, forget it! You can get back to your 'game' after you check on the prisoners."

"Yes, sir!" Dario and Xario said.

On his way to the brig, Dario was blocked off by a Mini-Mel fixing some circuitry in the floor.

"Outta my way, midget!" said Dario as he kicked the Mini-Mel.

The kick sent the Mini-Mel spiraling several feet through the air into a wall. I stood up and began screaming garbled nonsense through its twisted mouth at Dario.

"JklfjcheeseasklfajitalfjslaKILLdjlafjal!!"

"Stupid aberrations!" Dario mumbled.

"You know," Xario said warningly, "you should be more careful around them."

"Why should I? They're just grunts!"

"They weren't made by Ubus. Remember Mel?"

"Of course I remember Mel." Dario stopped. "Wait, are you saying they might revolt?"

Xario shrugged. "All I'm saying is-"

WHAM!

A giant weight fell onto Dario. Xario looked up at where the weight had come from and saw a group of Mini-Mels on the pipes in the ceiling pointing and laughing at the weight.

"Told you so," said Xario, as he began to walk away.

"I'm…okay" said a feeble voice from underneath the weight.

The Mini-Mels looked down at the weight, looked at each other, and shrugged. Then one said something in a garbled voice and they all laughed.

"Dario," said Xario, "I don't like the looks of this."

The weight lifted up to reveal a pancaked Dario.

"Why do you say that?" asked Dario.

SHINK!

Foot-long spikes came out of the bottom of the weight.

"Oh my," Xario said nonchalantly.

"Eep!" cried Dario.

WHAM!

Xario saw pale vapor seep out from under the fallen weight. He looked up and saw the Mini-Mels high fiving each other. Xario sighed, shrugged, and walked off toward the prison. In the cells were a bee Insecta, a cat Animalian, and a dark skinned human.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Tobias:**

_(Cassie's barn)_

They were late.

I was sitting in the rafters in Cassie's barn, watching the clock on the wall. They said they'd be here by seven. It was now 7:45.

Then I heard something. It sounded like a large object hurtling through the air. I focused my hawk eyes on the sound. Whatever it was, it was coming toward the barn. All I could see was blurry spot in the air.

(It's okay, Tobias,) I heard. (It's us.) It was Jimmy using his telepathy.

The blurred spot moved into the barn and turned into a glowing blue orb that the JJL, Rachel, and Cassie were inside of. The orb evaporated and they fell onto the ground. Cassie and Rachel stood and stared straight at John. That was when I noticed John was holding his left arm in his right hand. There was no blood for some reason, but it still looked gruesome.

"Alright," said John. "That was successful. While Erek is getting replacement Chee for Jake and Marco, us JJL will just chill out at Ax's scoop and work on a way to get outta here."

(WHAT HAPPENED!?) I practically yelled. John's arm was detached form his body and it looked like he could care less.

"You're arm…" Cassie said to John. "Are you alright?"

"John," said Lee "put your arm back on."

"Huh?" he said as if he had forgotten. "Oh yeah." He put it back in place and wiggled his fingers.

"Wow!" exclaimed Cassie, intrigued. "Is that some Animalian ability?"

"What? Oh. No, this arm's a fake," said John.

There was a bright flash and his arm glowed bright blue and was translucent.

"It's made of pure Empowered energy," said John.

"What exactly _is_ Empowered energy?" asked Rachel.

(Never mind that!) I said impatiently. (What happened?!)

"Well…" said Jimmy,

"It's a long story…" said John.

"You probably don't want to here it all…" said Jimmy.

"Let's just say we got into a fight with a bunch of 'bullies,'" said Lee.

(WHAT!?)

"Oh, calm down," said John.

"We won," said Rachel. "There's nothing to worry about."

(What do you mean 'there's nothing to worry about'?)

"We mind-wiped them with a photo-neuro light blast," said Jimmy, "They shouldn't remember a thing."

I heard the sound of footsteps, and then Erek entered the barn.

Erek looked up at me. "Did they tell you what happened yet?"

(I have a feeling they've left out some details, but I think I've figured out the basics.)

"Then let me fill you in on the rest," he said, and he and Lee told me everything that had happened. They had done battle and I hadn't been there. Naturally I was angry.

But before I could vent, Jimmy's watch began to beep.

"An incoming call?" he said, confused. "From who?"

RRRMMMBBBLLL!!!

Jimmy's watch began to give off a familiar bright yellow light.

"What's going on?" John and Rachel exclaimed at the same time.

"DIMENSIONAL AVALANCHE!!" cried Jimmy.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Lunar City:**

_(The Mega Malt Shop)_

_Alright Marco my boy_, Marco thought to himself. _You've got it this far, but you're getting close to your time limit._

Marco was in one of Lunar City's hot spots, the Mega Malt Shop, with Jenny Pyress. The JJL, Jake, and Ax had protested him going, but Jenny wouldn't hear of it, and she pulled Marco out of the HQ.

Now Marco, still morphed as John, was sitting across a table from Jenny and they were sharing a milkshake. Marco couldn't believe his luck!

"Something wrong?" asked Jenny.

Marco tried to think of something cool to say.

"Nothing's wrong when I'm with you," he said.

Jenny smiled. _Yes,_ thought Marco.

Then Jenny frowned. _No_, thought Marco.

"You haven't been acting yourself," said Jenny. "Are you alright? Answer truthfully."

"Alright?" squeaked Marco. "Of course everything's alright. It's just…" Marco thought. "There's a lot of stuff going on at HQ."

"Oh," said Jenny. "Maybe I should have let you stay. I was probably a little too brash."

"No, no," Marco said hastily. "It's good to get away form all the hustle and bustle."

"Yeah," said Jenny, touching the hand that Marco was currently borrowing.

_Now,_ thought Marco, _to move in for the kill._

Jenny and Marco moved closer together to kiss. Jenny closed her eyes and puckered her lips.

Closer, closer, closer…

FOOM!!

"Hiya blokes!"

A blue, scaly thing, about the size of a person's head, burst out of the milkshake Jenny and Marco had been sharing. Jenny screamed in surprise. Marco screamed in terror.

"Didn't you miss me?" it said as it latched itself to Marco's face.

"Auuuugh!" screamed Marco as he ran around the room.

Jenny pulled the scaly creature off of Marco by its tail.

"What is wrong with you, John?" asked Jenny. "This is Wish-Wish."

"Well," Marco said, shaking as he recovered. "I wish I knew what exactly a Wish-Wish is."

A big grin appeared on Wish-Wish's face.

It flicked back its brown robes, pulled up its sleeves, and pulled out its wand. Then, it broke into song:

"Ooooooooooh-

Wishity-washity woo!

I granteth a wish for you!

Wishity-washity wish,

I granteth a wish for fish!

"O, wishity-washity woo!

I granteth a wish for you!

Just say what you want,

I'll give it to you.

Wishity-washity woo!"

Just then Wish-Wish flicked his wand and a mariachi band of Wish-Wish duplicates appeared and the song changed to a Mexican style.

"O, Wish-ity, wash-ity, woo!

I grant-eth a wish for _you_! (Rrrrriba!)

Say what you want,

I'll give it to you!

Wish-ity, wash-ity, wooooYEEEOOOWCH!!"

Blue flames burst from the ends of Jenny's fingers and engulfed the Wish-Wish band.

"Who are you and what have you done with John?" Jenny snarled at Marco.

"I, uh, don't kn-know what you mean," Marco said feebly.

Other customers at the Malt Shop began to stare at the commotion.

"You've been acting weird the entire day!" Jenny yelled. "The rest of the JJL was reluctant to let you come with me, and you usually zap Wish-Wish before he gets too far in his song." Blue flames began to surround Jenny's hands and a blue light emanated from her eyes. "You've picked the wrong Empowered girl to mess with," Jenny growled.

Marco looked at where Wish-Wish had been floating through the air before he got fried. There was nothing there but a pile of ashes on the ground.

"You killed it!" squeaked Marco.

Just then Wish-Wish popped out from underneath Marco's hat.

"That's right!" yelled Wish-Wish. "Give the guy a cigar!" Wish-Wish pulled a cigar out of nowhere, stuffed it in Marco's mouth, and lit it with his wand.

BOOM!

The cigar blew up and covered Marco in soot. Wish-Wish began flying around in circles over Marco's head. "Weeeeeeee!"

Jenny grabbed Marco by his green JJL vest. "I'm taking you to the E-Force," she said.

"No!" said Marco. "I can explain everything!"

"Wish-Wish," said Jenny

"Yeeeeeesss?" Wish-Wish answered coyly.

"I wish I knew who this person is and what he's done with John."

"Okie-dokie!" answered the minidrake.

Wish-Wish shoved himself into Marco's head through his ear.

"Ack!" Marco protested.

"Wow!" Wish-Wish said from within Marco's head. "There's a lot of space up here!"

Wish-Wish then pulled himself out. "Okay, I got it!" he said. "Name: Marco. Faction: Animorphs. Goal: to improvise as John. What he has done with John: eaten him, like a radish."

"What!?" exclaimed Jenny, shocked.

"Actually," explained Wish-Wish, "I have no idea what he's done with John. But I thought it would be funny to say he had eaten him. Like a radish."

Jenny glared at Marco. "You're coming with me, 'Marco!' If that's really your name." She grabbed Marco by his Animalian ear and began pulling him out the door.

"Ow! Hey!" protested Marco.

"See ya later Chihuahuas!" called Wish-Wish.

"It's 'alligators!'" Jenny called back.

"Whatever," answered Wish-Wish as he vanished into a puff of smoke. The rest of the customers at the Malt Shop just shrugged and turned back to their drinks.

Jenny pulled Marco out of the Shop and toward the hover vehicle Jenny had driven there.

"Listen, Jenny," Marco tried again, "I can ex-"

"No!" interrupted Jenny. "You already tried that and you lied. Why should I trust you?"

"Uh…because…I'll be your friend?"

Jenny rolled her eyes. "Then where is John?"

"Er…I can't explain that."

Jenny glared. "Then that's the-"

"Miss Pyress," said a mechanical sounding voice.

Jenny turned and looked over at the source, and there stood two humanoid robots with golden crowns emblazoned on their chests.

The robots spoke again. "His Royal Highness, Our Majesty, Kommunications Kid requests your presence."

Jenny rolled her eyes again. "Well you can tell that little brat that I already have a boyfriend, and that if he wants me that bad he can tell me face to face for once!"

"Communi-who?" asked Marco. "Is he some sort of king?"

"No," said Jenny. "He's a ten-year-old villain who declared himself the ruler of all technology. He has a thing for me."

"Oh," said Marco.

The robots looked at one another, and then at Marco, who was still morphed as John. "You already have a boyfriend, you say?" said one robot.

"We shall rectify that," said the other.

"Oh, crap," said Jenny as she shoved Marco behind the hover car. She began launching Power Beams and Empowered Fire at the Kommunications Bots.

The robots began firing lasers, which Jenny dodged and blocked with Empowered Shields.

"What should I do?" Marco yelled over the commotion.

"Stay down!" Jenny yelled back. Her powers seemed to be having no effect on the robots, and she seemed to be getting tired.

Marco crouched behind the vehicle. He hated feeling so helpless. He didn't want to morph in front of Jenny and blow it all. The E-Force would come and who knows what would happen next. But he was an Animorph, dangit. He had to do _something_!

_Wait a minute!_ thought Marco. _I wonder…If John is a super hero, and I morphed him, does that give me his powers?_ It was an interesting thought. I couldn't hurt to try, right? 'Nothing ventured, nothing gained' as Jake had said.

Marco poked over the hood of the hover car and concentrated as hard as he could on one of the Kommunications Bots. Nothing happened, but then Marco felt a strange tingling behind his eyes. Then everything began to take of a reddish tinge, then all of a sudden…

_TSSEEEOWWW!!_

A heat beam blasted from Marco's eyes and blasted into the robots. The beam only lasted for about half a second, but it reduced to bots to bits of scrap metal and twin piles of molten metal.

Jenny spun around to look a Marco. "Marco? You have his powers too?!"

A wave of dizziness enveloped Marco, and it felt as if his skin was fizzy like soda pop.

"I…guess," Marco felt very groggy.

"Marco?" asked some dark shape, maybe it was Jenny.

"Hungh." Marco let the darkness fold around him. "Nighty night…"

And he collapsed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**JJL HQ:**

_(The Main Computer Room)_

Jake and Ax were still morphed as Jimmy and Lee. They did not want to risk any other surprise visitors. Jake had slumped on a couch that was next to the computer with Rusty. Marcus was on the couch too, but he had fallen asleep. Tomi had gone to the training room to clear his head. Ax and Chet were typing on the computer.

"He said he'd be back in an hour," grumbled Jake. "It's almost been two!" Jake was still upset over Marco leaving with Jenny.

"But we haven't been out forever!" she had said. "You're always working. You should take a break!"

"That won't be a good idea," Rusty had said.

"Why not?"

"Yeah, why not?" Marco had said. Jake had tried giving him a look, but apparently Marco hadn't seen it, or had chosen to ignore it.

"Because," said Tomi. "We have important stuff,"

"Like what stuff?" Jenny had retorted.

"Er, stuffy stuff," Chet had said, "that's stuffy."

"Yes," Ax had tried. "Very stuffy stuff. Sstuufff. Fffffff. Stu stustu…"

There had been more arguing but Jenny won and left with Marco, who had been smirking.

Marco, a member of the Animorphs. What if he didn't come back? What if he got stuck morphed as some dog thing? Jake grimaced at the thought of it. They were stuck in some alternate dimension with some strange group of teens and with no way to get home.

But, what about the JJL members stuck on his world? He wondered if Rachel had managed to flatten them. Or maybe Cassie had gotten the same alliance Jake had. Or maybe a bit of both. Tobias might find some friends, especially if John or Lee felt really alienated on his world.

But, what if Visser Three found the JJL first and got an alliance with them instead? Or what if the warped dimensional portal had killed Cassie, Tobias, and Rachel…

Jake couldn't bring himself to think about it any longer. Cassie's face, ripped apart by dimensional forces…

Jake smacked his forehead. "Don't think about that!"

Rusty looked over at Jake. "Something wrong?"

Jake looked at the ground and sighed. "Sometimes it just feels as if everything's going wrong all the time." Jake covered his face with his hands. "I just don't know what to do…"

Rusty patted Jake on the back. "Hey, I feel like that sometimes too. But you know what?"

Jake looked up at Rusty. "What?"

"We always manage to get through it."

Jake looked down again. "Yeah, but, you're not the leader. I have to make to toughest decisions, and sometimes they can determine the difference between life and death!"

Rusty smiled. "Well, your team must have a very good leader in you, seeing as how they're still alive. And consider Ax, Marco, and yourself lucky, at least their leader is still with you. Ours, John, got pulled through the portal into your world. And though John doesn't show it, I bet he feels the same pressures you do." Rusty then sighed. "Now I have to take John's place until he gets back."

Jake slouched in the couch with his head on the back. He felt drained. "Yeah. I guess." Jake looked up at Ax and Chet, who were still typing. "Hey, just what are you guys doing, anyway?"

"Well," said Chet, "we are trying to determine your dimensions dimensional signature."

"How?"

"By the energy in our bodies," answered Ax. "Our bodies are covered in dimensional energy from out dimension from our trip through the dimensional portal. Unfortunately, there is also energy form other dimensions mixed in."

Chet nodded. "Yup, it's just a matter of sorting out the most common signature and we've found your dimension."

"And then you can send us back?" Jake asked with a sudden surge of hope.

"Er," said Chet, "not exactly. We haven't really mastered sending mass from one dimension to another. Heck, we haven't even mastered normal transporters within our own dimension. You know, like on _Star Trek_. Rusty, remember the frozen pig experiment?"

Rusty shuddered and covered his mouth. "Urgh…please don't remind me!"

Jake smirked. "What happened?"

Chet looked up at Jake. "Let's just say the end result was a little more…inside-out and a lot warmer than what we started out with."

Rusty clamped both hands over his mouth and began making strange gagging noises.

"Oh, yeah," said Chet. "Most of it wound up on Rusty,"

Rusty's eyes bulged and he seemed about to blow. But, just then, Rusty managed to get out one word, "DELTA!"

The golden triangle on Rusty's white hat glowed and a large golden triangle appeared in front of Rust. Through the triangle there appeared to be some kind of portal. Rusty thrust his head through the triangular portal and there was heard a great retching sound:

"BLLAAAARRRFF!!"

Rusty pulled his head out and the portal vanished. He looked pale. Rusty wiped his moth and turned to Jake.

"Sorry about that. It's just that _some people_," he jerked his head in Chet's direction, "need to know to recognize visual signals that mean 'stop talking!'"

Chet just smiled. "But you're such an easy target."

Jake looked up at Rusty's hat. "What was that?"

Rusty gave a blank look. "What do you mean?"

Jake made a triangle with his fingers. "The triangular portal thing."

"The triangular…Oh! You mean the Delta Portal! Yeah, sorry if it freaked you out."

"It didn't," said Jake. "Are that and that Omega Slash thingy your powers."

"Not exactly," answered Rusty. "My 'powers' come from magical artifacts we have found. Without them I would be nothing." Rusty pointed to his hat. "That is the Delta Helm, it allows me to make short distance portals." He pointed to his t-shirt with the A on it. "This is my Alpha Armor in casual mode. It protects me." He pointed to his sword, which was leaning against the back of the couch. "And that is my Omega Sword, it allows me to use Omega _Strike_ and do some other pretty cool things."

Then Ax spoke up, "Speaking of powers, just what is Empowered Energy. I see many mentions of it in the computer's archives."

"Hey!" said C. "Be careful where you look, bub!"

"Calm down, C," said Chet, "I don't think he meant any harm."

Chet turned to Ax. "Empowered Energy is what gives Empowered people their powers. Like John's Heat Vision, Eric Vaugner's Power Punch, Jimmy's Repairing Touch, and even Lee's Power Whip. The energy runs through their body and allows them to use it to do some pretty amazing things, like fly, shoot beams, and even read minds."

Jake pointed to Marcus, "What about him?"

"Oh," said Rusty, "He's a mage. You know, a spellcaster."

Jake smiled thinking they were joking, but when no one said anything he said "Really?"

"Yeah, really," said Rusty.

Ax turned to Jake, "But you told me that magic is a human myth."

"It is," said Jake, "right?"

"Well," said Rusty, "since I have magical artifacts and since Marcus can do impossible, almost chaotic things, I thinks that magic exists in our world."

Jake just shook his head. "Weird."

"Yeah," said Rusty. "You get used to it."

"I thought I was," said Jake. "I mean, all the things I saw on my world, I thought I would never be surprised again. I guess that's what your life being turned around does to you."

"I know what you mean," said Rusty.

Jake gave Rusty an odd look. "You do?"

"Yeah," said Rusty. "You don't think I've been part of the JJL my entire life, do you? I was attacked by some shadow creatures one day, and that day I happened to be wearing this bracer my grandmother gave me," he pointed to a leather and gold bracer around his wrist, "She had sent a letter saying it was a 'bracer of strength.' I just wore it because it looked cool. When the creatures attacked me my bracer activated and turned me into a super strong warrior. John happened to be nearby at the time, and when he saw me kick shadow creature butt he asked me to join the JJL."

"And you said yes?" asked Jake.

"Actually I said no. I didn't think I was ready for that kind of excitement. But later on more and more shadow creatures were coming after me and I had to flee. Marcus then came along and helped me find the Omega Sword and Alpha Armor. Ever since then I felt like I owed something and the next thing I knew I was a full-time JJL Member. My life has never been the same since."

"How many of you guys are there?" asked Jake.

"Nine," answered Ax, "plus one intern."

"Boy," said C, "just how many files marked 'Classified' are you planning to look at?"

"C," Chet said warningly.

"Wait, said Jake. "If there are three of you here, three of you on my world, and Chet's the intern, then who are the other three?"

Once again, Ax answered, "Bee Franklin, Empowered, Bee Insecta; Tom Catt, Empowered, Cat Animalian; and Tim Lawson, Empowered, Human-African-American."

Chet looked at Ax. "I'm starting to agree with C. Just how much information are you going to take in?"

Ax looked at Chet. "I just thought that since you know about us, we should know about you."

Marcus woke up and began to stretch. "Now boys," he yawned, "don't make me separate you two."

_Bing!_

Ax and Chet both turned to the computer. Chet thrust his hands into the air. "Yes! Success!"

Ax calmly looked at the screen. "Prince Jake, we have found our dimension's signature."

"Yes!" shouted Jake. "Now what?"

Chet began typing again. "I believe I will be able to set up a two-way transmission into your dimension. That is, if I can find a JJL watch to contact."

Three dots appeared on the screen, one blue, one white, and one green.

"Yes!" said Chet. "I've got all three!"

"Who should we contact?" asked Rusty.

"Jimmy," said Marcus. "He's the scientist. He'll know how to sort things out, at least he'll try."

"Alright" said Chet. "Jimmy it is."

Chet, Ax, Jake, Rusty, and Marcus crowded around the JJL consul as a small bar filled up, confirming that the computer was contacting Jimmy's watch.

"Chet!" yelled C. "We have a sudden power surge!"

"What?" exclaimed Chet. "Where?"

"In the broadcasting array! Hurry it's about to blorrghngs…"

C's voice became distorted and incomprehensible, like a bad audio cassette. It reminded Jake of Rachel morphing into a grizzly while talking.

"C?" said Chet. "C!"

Just then the screen went blank and the consul sparked. Then an all too familiar yellow light began to fill the computer screen.

Everyone began to back away.

"Oh, no…" said Chet, "DIMENSIONAL AVALANCHE!!"

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**Author's Note (Paddy): **Hello guys. I know how I always say how sorry I am for taking so long. Well, I have no excuse now. It has taken me nearly three years (!) to finally get this chapter done. And for that I deeply apologize with all my heart. I have probably lost some readers and I will especially miss G8Master if he never reviews again. All the rest of you are great too, you know who you are.

In this chapter I tried to explain some parts of the JJL universe and tried to give a little back story. I'm also trying to show how the Animorphs and JJL in Lunar City are bonding (although for Marco and Jenny it's not going so well). I also wanted to introduce you to Wish-Wish.

**Wish-Wish**: That's me!

**Paddy**: Yes. Also I want to introduce you to Jenny Pyress.

**Jenny**: Hey! I'm so glad you all could read the story. I promise that they'll keep coming and they'll get better and better. Right, Paddy?

**Paddy**: Er, right. Just don't kill me. Anyway, thank you for reading, and would somebody please tell G8Master not to kill himself and that there is another chapter out. Thank You!

**Wish-Wish**: No, Thank _You_!

**Jenny**: He wasn't talking to you.

**Wish-Wish**: So?

**Jenny**: (catches W-W on fire)

**Wish-Wish**: Cool! (begins dancing) I'm on fire, I'm on fire, fire fire YAY!


	8. Devious

**Chapter 8:**

**Devious**

**Disclaimer Jenny: **Hello everyone!

**Wish-Wish: **Hello!!

**Jenny: **I wasn't talking to you.

**Wish-Wish: **I can see it in your eyes that you really _do_ love me. Now kiss me, Sweet Lips!

**Jenny: **(sets Wish-Wish on fire) Yeah…whatever. Let's just get this over with… Chicken Paddy does not own the Animorphs powers, characters, or plot. He does, however, own the JJL characters, powers, and plot. Let's go.

**Wish-Wish: **No matter how you slice it, it's still on fire.

**_Note:_** I apologize if things seem a bit wonky. I used a different application on this chapter. Let me know if it's buggy. Thanks!

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**Ubus Mellus's Base:**

_(On Io, a moon orbiting Jupiter)_

_KA-ZATCH! BLAM!_

Ubus ran into the computer room, holding the strange cylindrical device. He saw the computer screen showing static and parts of the console had blown out. Ha also saw Xario sprawled out on the ground.

"Xario!" yelled Ubus. "what happened?!"

Xario painfully picked himself up and surveyed the damage. "I…I don't know." he said.

Ubus glared at the Uber Mel. "Where's Dario?"

Xario glanced around. "There he is!" he pointed to a pair of Uber Mel legs dissolving into pale gas.

Ubus strode over to what remained of the Mellus supercomputer. There was still a small, partially active monitor glowing that showed some sort of line graph. There seemed to be a huge spike in the reading that had happened very recently.

Ubus pointed at the spike. "What is this?"

Xario limped over and looked at the screen. "Oh, I was running a an energy reading on the Dimensional Tunnel. I looks like there was an energy spike right when the computer exploded."

Xario looked up at Ubus, who, for an instant, had a terrible look of hatred on his face. But a second later it shifted into a sweet smile. Uh-oh.

Ubus put the device he had been holding on the console and gently put his hands on Xario's shoulders. He smiled an said in a kind voice "Tell me, Xario, how hard was it to hardwire and improve Mel's old computer?"

Xario looked around uneasily. He did not like where this was going. "Er…very hard."

Ubus nodded, still smiling. "Yes. So, I ask you," just then Ubus's face contorted into a red, furious, rage, "WHY DID YOU HAVE TO GO AND BLOW IT UP?!?" he yelled, shaking Xario violently.

"B-but, sir-" stammered Xario.

"But what?!" yelled Ubus.

"I didn't do this!"

Ubus's eyes narrowed. "Explain."

Xario pointed to another monitor. "The epicenter of the avalanche wasn't here. It was in Lunar City."

Ubus let go of Xario and looked down at the other monitor, which showed a map of the Solar System and details of Earth, its moon, Io, and Pluto. There was a red dot with concentric circles around it on Lunar City.

Xario continued "The avalanche was powerful enough to send surges through our scanners, but not as powerful as the one at our base in the Earth system. My guess is that the JJL tried to transmit a message through the damaged tunnel, creating an avalanche."

Ubus sighed. "Those idiots. What is the tunnel's condition?"

Xario tapped some keys on the remains of the consul. "Still holding together, but not for long. If it collapses it could throw all the dimensions into utter chaos, especially ours."

Ubus picked up his cylinder and looked it over. There were a few wires sticking out of it, but it was ready enough to be put to the test.

"Xario," said the evil teen. "I think it's time to put our plan into action. Revive Dario and get the computer back in order. I shouldn't take too long. When you are finished, notify me immediately. Our prisoners are about to have a jailbreak."

Ubus smiled to himself. Yes, this was all going to come together. Very soon.

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_**Somewhere:**_

_(Not over the rainbow)_

_Marco stood in a dark hall, surrounded by silence. In front of him, there was a large curtain with "JJL" proclaimed in large, block letters. Marco looked behind him and saw another large curtain that had "Animorphs" in lettering identical to the other curtain._

_There was something nudging his mind, telling him to go ahead and take a peak. What could it hurt?_

_Marco took a breath and peeked behind the JJL curtain. He saw piles of bones and skeletons, some human, some not. He saw one human one that was wearing a white shirt with a golden "A" on it and a white hat with a triangle. Rusty…_

_Marco pulled his head away as fast as he could. He hesitantly looked to the other curtain. The feeling, if that was what it was, nudged his mind again, telling him to look behind the other curtain now. _

_Nuh-uh! He didn't like what was behind curtain number one, and certainly did not want to see what was behind curtain number two._

_The feeling retaliated and pushed his mind. Marco felt that if he didn't look, something bad would happen._

_He closed his eyes and pulled aside the Animorphs curtain. He opened his eyes and took in the sight._

_He once again saw skeletons, but these were of his friends, people he knew and loved. He could see Jake's morphing shorts on a skeleton with an elongated tail bone and long, sharp teeth, like a tiger. Marco wanted to look away, but he couldn't. He could also see a mouthless skull attached to a skeleton with two arms, four legs, and a wicked tail blade. He also recognized other bones, even bits and parts of what looked like Erek. The only pile of bones he didn't see was his own._

_Marco tore his gaze away and quickly threw the curtain shut. He began to breath hard and shake all over. What was this? Some demented trick? Why him?_

_He could see other curtains around him. One had bold letters declaring "Team Nova," another saying "Xander and Co." What was this?_

_There was a noise, no, a voice from behind Marco giving a deep chuckle. He spun around to see a tall, muscular teen with violent red hair and malevolent crimson eyes. And, despite the person's noticeable strength, there was definite chub around his middle._

_The stranger glared with his blood-colored eyes, and smiled his cruel, thin lips._

"_Well," said Marco, "that was an interesting nightmare. I hope you don't mind if I wake up now."_

_The red haired demon chuckled again. That chuckle sent a chill down Marco's spine._

"_Oh, Marco," said the stranger, "always the comedian. You're wondering who I am, aren't you?"_

_That was exactly what Marco had been thinking, but he was hoping he wouldn't have to find out."_

"_You will," said the stranger."_

_Whoa, thought Marco._

"_Yes," said the stranger. "'Whoa,' indeed. I could always go with the clichéd response and say 'I'm your worst nightmare,' but that says nothing."_

_He spread his hands and red energy blossomed from them. It was not unlike the energy Marco had shot from his eyes when he had been morphed as John._

_Wait a minute! Marco focused on the picture of John in his mind…but nothing happened._

_The opponent with the glowing hands took a step closer and laughed. "Ha, ha, ha! This is not your world anymore. It's not mine either. In fact, this is just a figment of your imagination. But that does not make it any less real."_

_He raised on of his glowing hands at Marco. "And just so you know, my name is Ubus Mellus, and I am indeed your worst nightmare!"_

_There was a red flash from Ubus's hand and…_

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**JJL HQ:**

_(Medical Room A)_

Marco snapped his eyes open. At first, he was blinded by the bright, neon lights. But as he adjusted, he began to take in his surroundings.

He was laying in some kind of soft, cushy bed in a slightly inclined position. There was an IV slowly dripping medication down a tube that ran into his arm. He could also see a screen on a machine next to his bed that beeped out his heart rate on a green line. Marco looked down at his arm and was thankful to see it was smooth, furless, and tan. He was himself again. He was not ready to be stuck as a fuzzy powerhouse.

Marco could hear voices, not too far off. One sounded like the guy with the sword, Rusty, and the other sounded like Jenny.

Rusty was saying "…and ever since, they've been fighting against the Yeerks for their Earth."

He then heard Jenny say "So let me get this straight: Parasitic slugs are invading their planet, a blue furry alien with a scorpion tail gives them the power to copy DVA and transform into any animal, and they're only, like, in Jr. High, High School?"

"That's pretty much the size of it," said Rusty.

Marco began trying to sit up to take in more of his surroundings. Chet must've been nearby because he rushed to Marco's bed.

"Easy there," said the intern. "Just take it easy."

"Oh come on," said Marco. "It's not as if I'm completely helpless." He did feel a sudden dizziness as he sat up, though.

Rusty heard the rustling about and walked into the room. Marco could now see that he was in some sort of medical room. There was other hospital-like equipment and beds set in a row on either side of him.

"How is he?" asked Rusty.

"Pretty good, actually," answered Chet. "His body has successfully auto-demorphed and the excess Empowered energy has been purged from his system. I'm sure you'll be pleased to note that Jake, Ax, and Marcos are alright also."

"What do you mean?" asked Marco. "What happened?"

"Uh…well," began Rusty, "e has a little…accident."

"I swear!" exclaimed Tomi Twinblade, who was walking into the room, "I leave you guys for ten minutes. Ten minutes! Then you guys decide to go and blow something up! If you're going to do that, at least involve me!"

Tomi shook his head. "Do you know how long I was stuck in the training room with the computer down? NO, you don't. I had to blast that blighter blast door open with my daggers, which is no easy feat, by the way."

Tomi looked over and saw Marco sitting up in the med-bed. "Ah, well if it isn't Mr. Marco. So, what's up with our little Romeo?"

Chet strode over to a computer screen on the wall. He tapped a button and it blinked to life. It showed the JJL logo, a green J, a blue J, and a red L connected by a line on the top bar.

Chet began "It's a bit complicated, but it goes something like this:" the monitor blinked and showed flowing stream of red blood cells in a blood vessel. "This is the blood stream of a normal human. Now to the Animorphic element…," blue orbs appeared and floated with the blood cells. "As you can see, there's much more stuff in there."

"What are th-" Marco began.

"Those," replied Chet, anticipating Marco's question, "are tiny capsules at sub-zero temperatures. They each contain DNA strands from different creatures. Gorillas, rhinos, fish, house flies, that type of stuff. Now let's see what happens when you morph John Vaugner."

The screen showed several of the blue capsules to attach themselves to the blood cells. "The capsules are injecting the DNA into the blood stream," explained Chet. The cells seemed to shift slightly. Then blue dots of light began to pour though the blood stream.

"Those blue lights," said Chet, before anyone could ask, "are Empowered energy particles."

"That still doesn't explain why I passed out," said Marco.

Chet looked at the screen and back at Marco. "Your blood was already full of blood cells and DNA capsules, but the addition of Empowered particles did not make much room for regular blood to go through and made you blood extra thick. Your vessels were so saturated with DNA and Empowered energy that they could not function properly."

"But I was in morphs for almost two hours," said Marco. "In fact, nothing really happened until I-"

"Until you used John's heat vision," finished Chet.

"You know," retorted Marco, "I do have the ability to finish my own sentences."

Chet blushed and continued. "Whenever an Empowered uses their powers, there is an increase in the Empowered energy flow. It would be dangerous for you, Ax, and any of the other Animorphs to use Empowered powers or even morphing an Empowered."

"But I'm fine now," said Marco. "So it can't be that bad."

"Let me continue," said Chet. "Empowered energy does more than let you shoot beams and things. It also has regenerative effects. It supplies energy so you don't need to breath, pressurizes your body so you can survive in a vacuum, and even heals you a little when you get injured. When you passed out, you began to auto-demorph. At the same time, the Empowered particles began to try to heal you. The tow processes conflicted with on another and we almost lost you."

"But," said Marco. Chet almost interrupted, but didn't. Marco continued "how did you rescue me?"

"We thought fast enough to use inhibitor cuffs," said Rusty, holding up what looked like a golden pair of handcuffs. "They drain and slow the flow of Empowered energy. After that, your morphing powers did the rest."

"You're a bloody lucky blighter, you are," said Tomi.

Marco looked around. From what Rusty and Chet described, he was lucky indeed. "Where are Jake and Ax?" asked Marco.

"They're fine," said Rusty. "Our computer just blew up is all."

"What!?" exclaimed Marco. "What kind of super heroes are you?"

Chet explained "We had an inrush of Dimensional energy. According to the Dimensional Tunnel Theory, 'All Dimensions are connected by a trans-phase wormhole of infinite length.' We think the structure of this wormhole was damaged and could not stand the strain of this signal."

"Signal?" asked Marco.

"Yes," said Rusty. "We think we may be able to contact your dimension. But, apparently it's going to take some time. The computer is repairing itself right now. It should be back online in no less than half and hour."

Marco couldn't believe it! He was a step closer to finally going home. He could picture his dad when he got back. Hey, son where have you been? Oh, nowhere. Just crossing dimensional horizons is all, Dad. Alright, son. Just make sure you eat your Wheaties.

He looked at a calendar. It had been no less than a day (or had it?) since he had arrived here, but it felt like ages since he had shared insults with Rachel.

"That's great!" said Marco. He then looked down at the regulation hospital gown he was wearing. "But, uh, could I have my clothes back first?"

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**Rachel:**

_(Cassie's barn. Or at least what's left of it)_

My head hurt like I had been hit by a safe, kind of like on those Road Runner cartoons. Now I know how Wile E. Coyote must have felt.

I opened my eyes to find I was lying on the ground, buried under a pile of splintered wood. I struggled to unbury myself and stand up. Getting a few splinters on the way. What I saw broke my heart.

The barn was completely gone. All that was left was half a splintered wall barely standing. I slowly turned around to take un what had used to be the Animorphs headquarters. I could see Cassie, John, and Jimmy also picking themselves out of the debris. Lee was standing up with a Power Shield around the cages where Cassie's family kept the wounded and recovering animals for the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic they ran. Erek was standing off to the side, his hologram gone and he was standing with his arm up to his eyes, as if shielding himself from a blinding light. He almost looked like some sort of statue.

"Wow," said John. "De ja vu."

Cassie put her hands up to her mouth and made a sound like a muffled shriek.

"Well," said Jimmy. "It could've been worse…"

If It wasn't for the debris, I would've gone over and strangled him. But, he was right. Before the explosion, he had just managed to take his watch off and toss it as far as he could. Obviously he hadn't tossed it far enough. At least we all seemed to be okay. That is, until I could get a hand on Jimmy.

"What happened?" I said, slowly and threateningly.

Jimmy looked at me calmly. "A minor dimensional avalanche," he replied.

"Minor!?" I practically screamed. "You call this 'minor'!?"

Then Jimmy got this look. I swear, it was the exact same look Ax gets when he's explaining quantum physics to us.

"Believe me," said Jimmy. "This is minor. The ones at Visser Three's and Ubus Mellus's were approximately five times more powerful. The temporal-dimensional shift is just too-"

"TOBIAS!" Cassie screamed. "Where's Tobias!?"

I looked around I couldn't see Tobias anywhere. I turned and glared at John and Jimmy.

"He's over here," called Lee, lowering his shield. He was holding a limp, red-tailed hawk in his hands.

Cassie tried to rush over, but John, who was closest, stopped her.

"Whoa," he said. "Be careful there. I don't think it's a good idea for you to walk through splinters on your bare feet."

Cassie had to settle with looking over at Tobias from a distance.

"Is he okay?" she asked.

"I think so," said Lee. "I can feel his heart beating and he's breathing. I think he's got a broken wing, though. But it's nothing morphing can't fix."

Cassie put her hand on her chest and leaned against John in a 'Thank God' expression.

"Cassie!?" came a call. It came from Cassie's house.

"Uh-oh," said John.

"Cassie!?" yelled Cassie's dad. "Cass- My God… CASSIE!!"

"I could take him out," John suggested, but that idea was quickly put out by a look from Lee. I would've given John more than a look if circumstances had permitted.

Cassie's dad was rushing over as fast as he could from Cassie's house. He then stopped suddenly about ten feet away as he looked at the strange scene. There was John, the dog boy; Erek, the robot dog boy who still was not moving; Lee, the red alien with antenna; Jimmy, who actually looked pretty normal; Cassie and I in our leotards; and on top of that was the rubble that had once been the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic.

Cassie's father just stood there, his eyes wide and mouth partly open, almost like a cartoon. I decided to try something.

"Uh…" I began. "Hello. Nice night, huh?"

That broke the trance, unfortunately not in the way I wanted.

"AAAAAAAH!" he screamed. He just stared a the scene and screamed.

Cassie and I tried to calm him down, but his mind must have snapped!

"Jimmy!" said John. "Flash him!"

I looked over at them. "What?!"

Jimmy tapped his watch and the small red ball popped out again.

"Everyone cover your eyes!" yelled Jimmy.

Cassie tried to get to Jimmy. "NO!!!"

Her dad must've figured out something was up, because he began to turn around.

John, Jimmy, and Lee put their hands to their eyes and John put his other hand over Cassie's eyes. I did the same.

FLASH!

The screaming stopped. I peeked out from under my hands and saw Cassie's dad standing there like he had been before he started screaming, with that lost look on his face.

Cassie tore John's hand off her face and looked at her entranced father. "Dad…"

Jimmy slipped the Little Flash back into his watch. "Don't worry. He's okay. He'll just be stunned for a couple of minutes."

"What do we do know?" I asked. This was getting too weird, even for me.

Jimmy looked around at the splintered wood and shattered glass. "First of all, we fix the barn."

"How?" I asked. The former Animorphs headquarters was completely demolished. There was no way to fix a mess like this.

Jimmy just smiled and floated over to the partially remaining wall. "Like this." He touched the cracked wood and a glowing, yellow grid spread from his fingers. The grid covered the entire wall. After a few seconds, the grid spread out into a blueprint of the whole barn. Then the debris began to shake. Pieces of wood and glass began flying around and positioning themselves into their appropriate places. Even electrical wires, furniture, tools, and bales of hay were reorganizing themselves. I could hear tingling and zapping sounds as parts and pieces re-fused to each other and moved into place. Gradually the barn reformed into what it had been before. The whole thing took only about 30 seconds.

The barn looked just as it had been before. Better even. In fact, it looked as if it had been painted yesterday. Maybe Cassie's family wouldn't notice…

"And now," Jimmy said, "for a more realistic touch." he touched the wall again and a red grid engulfed the barn. There was a great creak and the paint flecked, tools rusted, and wood split.

Jimmy immediately took his hand away and surveyed his work. "Better?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said. "It's perfect."

Cassie looked around in wonder. "That was amazing!"

"Thank you," said Jimmy. "It's a couple powers that I call Touch Repair and Touch Destroy. They can come in handy in a pinch. I'm the only one in the JJL who has them."

The barn door opened and John walked in. "I told Mr. Cassie's dad that he had come outside to feed the animals and saw nothing strange whatsoever. And if the wife asks, it was just sunlight reflected off Venus that hit some swamp gas. And don't worry about him. He's a little dizzy, but he'll be fine."

Cassie had an immense look of relief on her face. She walked through the now clear barn and hugged John. "Thank you."

"Er…You're welcome."

I looked over at Erek, who was still just standing there, like a metal and ivory statue.

I pointed over my shoulder back at him. "What do we do about Erek?" I asked.

Jimmy walked over to Erek and looked him over. "I think the sudden burst of electrical energy shorted out his system." Jimmy lay his hands on him. "Let me try something."

The yellow grid spread across Erek's surface. The grid sparked and Jimmy jerked away.

"I don't get it," Jimmy said.

"What?" asked John.

Erek still stood there, frozen in place. Jimmy looked him over again. "I think he's impervious to my powers or something."

Lee walked forward, handing Tobias to Cassie. "Before we do anything else," he said, "let's go somewhere else and get away from the population." He pointed at Erek and Tobias. "We also need to see what we can do for these two."

"He's right," I said. "How about Ax's scoop? He's got to have something there that might point us in the right direction. If nothing else, we could set it up for you guys."

Jimmy nodded. "Yeah, that's a good idea."

"It's settled then," said John. "Lee, you take Tobias with you and keep him safe. Jimmy and I will both carry Erek, he's got to be heavy. Rachel, you and Cassie morph birds and scout ahead. We won't be far behind."

I couldn't believe that John was giving _me_ orders! Just who did he think he was? I was about to say something when Cassie touched my arm. "Not now Rachel. We need their help, and they need ours."

Yeah, John would need someone's help when I was through with him. I put those thoughts out of my mind. It was getting late and we had things to do. No point in arguing with your supposed allies.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on one of my favorite morphs, the great horned owl.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**JJL HQ:**

_(Main Computer Room)_

Jake stood in what had previously been the JJL HQ computer room. Now it was just a mess. Chairs, bits of sofa, wiring, insulation, and silicon plates littered the carpeted ground. Ha and Ax were currently standing in the midst of it in their natural forms.

What small injuries they had taken from the explosion had vanished when they demorphed. Rusty and Marcus had thought fast enough to put up magical shields. Jake knew Marco had not been as lucky as to have had a mage with him. He didn't know what happened to Marco, so he stood impatiently waiting for any news.

Meanwhile, Ax was busy observing the JJL's new and strange technology. He was worried about Marco, but thought it pointless to dwell on it while there was nothing to do but trust the JJL. He could see wiring and other gadgets reattaching themselves and auto-repairing. Chet had said that their head scientist, Jimmy Henderson, had the power to fix objects by touching them and had infused the power into the JJL HQ itself.

Ax viewed the technology as superior to the normal human technology in his dimension, but still primitive compared to Andalite technology. The JJL did not even have Z-Space drives!

Ax suddenly dodged to the side as a silicon plate went zipping by him, missing by inches. The plate asserted itself into its correct spot in the computer.

(We should relocate, Prince Jake. This could be a dangerous area to-)

"I know!" snapped Jake. He immediately regretted it. Ax was just pointing out a fact, but Jake was under a lot of stress.

"I'm sorry, Ax," apologized Jake. "It's just…" He wasn't sure what to say.

(It is all right, my prince. Even the greatest of warriors need, as Marco would say, "to chill.")

Mentioning Marco made Jake feel even worse. Ax was about to try something else when Jake walked off to the JJL library, where it was much safer. Ax followed close behind.

"Ax," said Jake when they were surrounded by couches, chairs, and books. "If the E-Force are the good guys, then why are we hiding from them? Couldn't they help us too?"

Ax took a book entitled _The Airvenmar Almanac: a Calendar Guide to the Fifth Planet from Dosol _from the shelf. (According to the JJL's database, the E-Force has little confidence in the JJL's capabilities. As adults, the E-Force would much rather handle extra-normal affairs themselves. The JJL rejects these actions. It seems that the think the E-Force would imprison us for some reason or another. Politics really.)

"Imprison us? Why? What did we do?"

Ax leafed through the pages, noting the geographical maps and strange plants. (We could be invaders for all they know. The would rather that none of us would…"

Ax's thought speak trailed off.

"Ax?" Jake asked, looking around for the cause. "Ax, what is it?"

Ax reached up to a high shelf and pulled down a small, thin, paperback book. It had a glossy cover and the red band on the bottom, signifying it as a "Scholastic" book. It stood out from the other leather-bound books that surrounded them. What really caught Jake's eye was what the cover showed: a boy's face steadily changing into a face of a lizard. The final lizard's face was actually a hole in the cover that showed the first page, a lizard in a locker. The book was titled _Animorphs: The Invasion_. Jake could hardly breath. He could barely recognize the boy's face as his own, what he used to look like before the Animorphs.

(Prince Jake! Look!)

Jake tore his eyes away from the book cover and looked up to where Ax's stalk eyes were pointing. There was an entire set of the thin, paperback books that all had the _Animorphs_ symbol on them. All the titles seemed to consist of "The" and another word, except for a few other books. _The Andalite Chronicles, The Hork Bajir Chronicles, Megamorphs…_

(Prince Jake,)

Jake looked down at _The Invasion_ again and saw that Ax was flipping the pages. There was a little min-flip book show in the corners of the pages showing Jake morphing into a lizard. Jake smiled in spite of himself. His entire adventure as an Animorph seemed to be a kid's book.

"Hey guys! There you are."

Jake turned toward the sound and saw Rusty, Marcus, Tomi, and Marco standing there. Ax jammed the _Animorphs_ book back up into it's place, as if he was guilty of something.

Marco smirked as he walked toward his friends. "Did you miss me? Nothing can stop the ol' Marco man!"

Jake rushed forward and hugged Marco. "God, I missed you," was all he could say.

Jake pulled away and looked at his friend. "None the worse for wear, either," he said.

Marco looked over at Ax. "What? Aren't you gonna hug me too?"

Ax gave Marco a confused look. (It is not customary for Andalites to…hug.)

Marco held his arm out wide. "Oh, come on! It's not that hard. Just put your arms around me."

The JJL looked on as Ax awkwardly took a step forward and grappled Marco around the waist. (Like this?)

"Close enough. No kiss me!"

Ax pulled away. (What?)

"Just kidding you!" said Marco, laughing. "Come on Ax-man, liven up."

Chet entered the library holding a data pad. "The computer should finish repairing itself within twenty minutes. Then I'll see if I can run a diagnostic to see if the system is alright."

"While we're waiting," said Marco, "you wouldn't mind relaying the events that led the computer to exploding, would you?"

_DEEET! DEEET! DEEET!_

A loud beeping noise permeated the headquarters and red lights began flashing from hidden slots in the ceiling. All the JJL member's and Chet's watches began beeping.

"What is that?" yelled Jake over the din.

"An emergency!" answered Rusty.

"Someone needs the good ol' JJL's help!" said Tomi.

Rusty pressed his watch and the beeping stopped and the red lights stopped flashing, but kept a steady red light. "Hello?"

Rusty could see the face of the Secretary General appear on his watch.

"Rusty?" The Secretary looked confused. "Rusty, where's John Vaugner? He is on duty, isn't he?"

Rusty's face turned red. "Er…he's…uh…he's in the shower right now. He asked me to take over for him."

"Strange," said the Secretary. "Why aren't you using your main computer?"

This time Marcus answered. "Jimmy's giving it an upgrade."

"Oh. Fine."

"What do you need, sir?" asked Rusty. He wanted to avoid further questioning if possible.

"I would rather have the E-Force handle this, but since they're already busy in New York, and since this does have more to do with you, I'll let you know about this."

The Secretary General pointed to someone off screen and the view on Rusty's watch changed to show a black screen. The Secretary's voice continued: "We received this message about ten minutes ago from Io."

A face appeared on the screen. It was a boy, dark skin, about fourteen years old. He seemed very scared and looked as if he had been running from something.

Marcus gasped. "It's Tim!"

And indeed Rusty recognized the face as belonging to Tim Lawson, a JJL member.

Tim began to speak in between pants. "It's…_pant_…me Tim. _Pant!_ Tom, Bee and I have been_…pant_…captured by Ubus! _Pant!_ You have to help us! He's after us. You've got to-" Just then Tom's voice could be heard from off screen. "Tim! More Mini-Mels are coming. I can only hold them off for- Bee! No!" Tim spoke again. "Please. We are-" _Bzzzzzzt!_ The screen went static.

Rusty's heart was beating fast. The three most important JJL members were trapped in another dimension, now three more would be killed by Ubus Mellus! Rusty forced himself to be calm. They wouldn't be killed. Not if he could help it!

The Secretary's voice brought Rusty back. "…and make sure you be more careful! I can't count the number of times I've had to send the E-Force in to help you. Right. You've got your assignment. I suggest you hurry. Arthur out." The Secretary General, whose name happened to be Arthur, signed out.

"Oh, man! This isn't good! This just isn't boggywoggarting good!" said Tomi. "What do we do?"

"I'll tell you what we do," Rusty said with resolve in his voice. "We are going to go over there, rescue are friends, and kick some evil a-"

"MONKEY!" interjected the small, blue, mini-drake known as Wish-Wish.

"Where did that come from?" said Jake, startled.

Wish-Wish floated up to Jake's face and said in a very creepy voice "Your brain!" Then it quickly said "Would you like fries with that?" It then laughed maniacally as it bounced around the room and vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Uh-huh…" said Marco. "You do that."

(Back to the matter at hand,) said Ax. (Who is this Ubus?)

Wish-Wish immediately appeared in front of Ax's face, dressed as an old Chinese sensei. "Young Grasshoppah, the answer is very simple." He then turned into the very image of Ubus Mellus. "I _am_ Ubus Mellus. Muhahah-"

Jake saw Marco tense up in the corner of his eye, like he had been struck be an electric bolt.

In his surprise, Ax reflexively struck his tail blade, cutting a deep gash in Wish-Wish/Ubus Mellus's neck. Wish-Wish/Ubus Mellus rolled around on the ground, spewing candy out of his nick wound all over the floor.

There was a poof of powdered sugar and Wish-Wish was himself again. He zipped right up to Ax's face. "And now you know the _rest_ of the story! Ho ho ha ha!" Wish-Wish then disappeared again.

"Rrright," said Tomi. "Well come along, blokes. We need to get moving!"

As they left the library, Chet couldn't help noticing that one off the Animorphs books seemed to be awkwardly stuffed into place, but he didn't have time to dwell on it.

As they quickly marched through the corridors, Jake asked Rusty "How long will it take for us to get to Io?"

"_You_ will be staying here with Chet," replied Rusty.

An immense look of relief crossed Marco's face.

"What?" said Jake. "You have helped us immensely! The least we could do is help you!"

"I'm sorry," said Rusty. "But this is much too dangerous! Maybe another time, but no now. You will be safe here."

"We're just as powerful as you are! We can help," insisted Jake.

"Uh, Jake, buddy, why are you trying to get us _into_ danger?"

Rusty stopped in front of a heavy steel door and turned to Jake. "I know you want to help. I appreciate that, but you're not expendable! Ubus Mellus is a very bad guy."

Jake was about to retaliate, but Rusty said "I'll tell you what. If we are in desperate need of help, have Chet take you up to help us. Okay?"

Jake settled on this compromise. Rusty pulled a card out of his wallet and passed it through a mechanism nest to the door. A light turned green and the door opened.

It revealed a huge hanger area containing a multitude of space-faring ships.

"We'll take that one," said Rusty. He pointed to a cylindrical ship that had two main side fins, two fins like a shark's near the rear, and a space shuttle type nose on the front."

(Wait,) said Ax. (How do you expect to get to the planet Jupiter any time soon? I do not see any Z-Space drives. It would take you years just to get within good visual range of Jupiter on just ionic engines.)

Chet chuckled. "Heh. We don't have Z-Space in this dimension. We have something called Hyperspace. We have Hyperspace engines to take us long distances. We should be at Jupiter within less than five minutes!"

Ax still looked dubious.

"Don't believe me?" asked Chet. "We'll watch them on my watch. Then you'll believe me."

"Come on guys!" said Rusty. Rusty, Marcus, and Tomi boarded the cylindrical ship, which was known as the _Space Fighter_. Jake, Marco, Ax, and Chet waved as the ship lifted up off the ground and shot up through the roof.

"Hey! Stop them! Wait for me!" Jenny rushed up the hallway and into the hanger. She saw the _Space Fighter_ shoot off and she slumped her shoulders. "Oh pooh!"

She turned to the Animorphs and Chet. "Why didn't you tell me they were taking off?"

Chet's face turned red. "Uh…actually. I, uh, forgot you were here. Heh."

Jenny's face turned red this time, but for a different reason. "What?"

"Uh, you know," said Chet. "I should be monitoring their progress. Bye!" Chet hastily ran down the hall as fast as his chubby body could carry him, which was surprisingly fast.

"Oh no! You're not getting away that easily!" yelled the physically fit Jenny as she charged down the hall after him.

(Prince Jake,) said Ax. (I have never really quite understood the female species.)

"Me neither, Ax" answered Jake. "Me neither,"

"Ditto," said Marco.

"I like peanuts," said Wish-Wish, sitting on top Ax's head.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Jimmy:**

_(Ax's scoop)_

It had been a smooth flight to Ax's scoop. There were no instances, except for John and I almost dropped Erek. I mean, what does he weigh? 10 tons? We had found the scoop after a little searching and we were now demorphing and looking around the place.

It looked kind of like a cozy little apartment. There was a television, a laptop computer, and a sort of area covered in blankets and mattresses, for sleeping probably. There was also the odd tool laying around.

"Nice place," said John.

"Nice enough," said Rachel.

Lee placed Tobias in the sleeping area and Cassie joined him. Lee was one of our main medical experts. He knew what he was doing. "I think he'll be alright," he said. Cassie did not look very reassured. She kept checking Tobias's pulse and breathing as much as possible. Rachel later joined them and look worriedly at Tobias. I've read enough Animorphs books to know how she hated feeling helpless.

Meanwhile, I was over with Erek, trying to somehow figure out how to get him up and running again. I was about to turn on the computer, when I realized that doing so would probably do no good. It wasn't like there was a USB port or anything, and chances were that the computer would work much too slow for my needs. But chances were that Ax had modified it himself.

I decided to mess with it later. I gave Erek another look over. His exoskeleton seemed in excellent condition. No scorch marks or carbon burns. I was just-

"Welcome to KGBA, your local news network." John had turned on the television.

"What?" said John, when he noticed everyone was looking at him. "It doesn't hurt to watch the news, does it?"

Everyone just rolled their eyes and went back to what they were doing. Actually, I was glad that John had turned on the television. It gave a sense of connection to the normal, everyday world. Ever since I had joined the JJL, I have never had a dull moment.

When I was eight years old I was living in the Heimlich Home for Orphaned Children in Richmond, Virginia. I have never known my parents. I heard that my father left my mother when I was born and my mother died soon after. I had lived at the orphanage all my life. Until something happened.

Arabie of the E-Force came in one day. He was thinking about adopting a child. There was a nasty bully at the orphanage that I pulled a prank on by tying a brick a RC race car and enhancing it to go twice as fast. Then I had it repeatedly run over the bully's feet. Arabie had seen this and commented on my technical skills. A few days later, a was adopted and living in Lunar City. It was there that I met John and Lee. John did not like me at first, but after I saved his skin a few times we developed a love-hate kind of friendship. They imbued me with Empowered Energy and asked me to help develop a club. John came up with the name JJL. Since then, we have been saving lives, risking our necks, and acquiring other members.

"Our top story tonight…" That was the television. "People around," it said the Animorphs' town's name, " say they saw a strong, red flash over the city. People nearer the flash are said to have memory lapses at around the same time. Authorities say it is nothing to worry about, but some people say otherwise." The image shifted to some hippie-like guy with long hair and beard. He said "It's aliens I tells ya! Aliens! They get into your head and controls ya! They take over yer mind! It's coming! I sez it's coming! It-" The screen was replaced by a "We Are Having Technical Difficulties" sign.

"Heh," laughed Rachel. "I'm surprised the Yeerks didn't catch that. Leave it to some hippie to get the message out."

(RACHEL! RACHEL! HELP!)

Tobias suddenly started flapping and flinging about on the mattress. Rachel rushed over to him and said in soothing words "Tobias. Shush! It's me. I'm here. It'll be okay!"

Tobias calmed down and looked up at us. (W-where a-are we? What happened?)

Rachel gently stroked Tobias's feathers. "We're at Ax's scoop. It's okay, just calm down. You had a nasty bump. There was an explosion, but it's all better."

(But, what about Cassie's barn? It there was an explosion, wouldn't-)

"It's fine," I answered. "I fixed it. Don't' worry, I'll explain later. Right now, you're better. Though, I can't say the same thing for Erek."

I looked back up at Erek, standing there with his arm in front of his eyes. I just wasn't sure what to do with him. Perhaps there was a way to open him up, but I did not know the first place to look. It had been a little while since I had read the Animorphs books, and my memory for the non-mechanic was not the best. He was impervious to my powers and that complicated things a bit.

"Uh…Jimmy…" said John.

I walked back over to Erek. "Not now, John." I was busy.

"Jimmy…"

"It can probably wait."

"Uh, no. It really can't."

I turned to John. He held up his watch. It was glowing yellow.

_BLEEP! BLEEP! BLEEP!_

Then it started beeping. Yellow sparks began to shoot from it. There was another Dimensional Avalanche coming, and there was nothing any of us could do to stop it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**The JJL _Space Fighter_ :**

_(Hyperspace)_

The _Space Fighter_ hurtled through Hyperspace, which looked like a long, white tunnel. The journey was uneventful. They passed a few space freighters coming from Pluto and one commercial transport ship from Animalia, but nothing extraordinary. After five minutes, the _Space Fighter_ exited Hyperspace.

Jupiter, being a large planet, was easy to see, even from far off distances. It took up most of the view screen.

"Identify Io," said Rusty. He was not much used to being in command, but he knew that he had to, for the sake of his friends. The craft was meant to be used by at least six people, but Marcus, Tomi, and Rusty each managed to work with the ship.

Marco typed in the coordinates to Io and a red blip appeared on the view screen. "ETA: approximately seven minutes," stated Marcus.

"Oy, can't we faster?" asked Tomi. "The longer we take, the more likely it is that Tim, Tom, and Bee end up dead…or worse." He didn't want to elaborate on what sort of tortures Ubus Mellus could bring upon. Within his own citadel, Ubus Mellus could be a very fearsome foe.

Marcus looked up from Jimmy's old console, annoyed. "If we go any faster, it is very likely Ubus Mellus would see us and shoot us out of the sky before we get anywhere near Io."

Tomi looked up from John's console at Marcus and Rusty. "But couldn't you just use your magic staff and poof us in there Marcus? And don't you use your Delta Portal, Rusty?"

"It's too risky," said Rusty. "We could easily get captured if he detects any magical energy. We're no use to Tim, Tom, and Bee dead…or worse."

Tomi nodded. He hated these hurry up and wait things. It also did not help that C had been off line since the avalanche. She could be a lot of help right now. Chet said that she would be back online once the computer repaired itself, but by then it might be too late.

Seven long minutes dragged by. The _Space Fighter_ was eventually close enough to Io to establish radio contact. Rusty gave Marcus and signal and Marcus began to transmit a message in the secret JJL code.

------------------------------------------

"Sir," said Dario. "We are detecting an incoming message!"

Ubus Mellus walked up to the Uber Mel. "What kind of message?"

Dario tapped a few keys. "I can't tell what it is exactly. It's a radio message, coming from somewhere nearby. Scanners don't show anything…."

Ubus Mellus smiled to himself. "It's the JJL coming to rescue their dear friends. Release the Mini-Mels. Lets give the JJL something to chew on."

"Yes, sir." Dario punched a button and the console and red lights began flashing throughout the base.

Some Mini-Mels clambered into tiny space fighters and launched out of hangers. Others simply put on rocket boosters and jumped out airlocks into space.

Ubus liked how dutiful his little minions were. Soon it would be time.

"Xario!"

Xario appeared from the corridor. He was a mess of wires and insulation tubes. "Sir?"

"Is it ready yet?"

"Almost sir. I've just about got the device in place."

"Let me know the moment you are done. I don't want any time wasted!"

Xario saluted his master. "Right away, sir!" Xario liked it when they were destroying the enemy. Destroying the enemy meant Ubus was less angry. Ubus being less angry meant that he had to endure less pain.

------------------------------------------

"Anything?" asked Rusty.

"No reply," said Marcus.

"They must not be on the same channel," suggested Tomi. "Or they're not near a radi-- Oh, bloody 'ell!"

"What? What is it?" Rusty rushed over to Tomi's console.

"We've got Mini-Mels! 'Undreds of 'em!"

"Full alert! Battle stations!"

Marcus took control of the weapons station, Tomi took tactical, and Rusty took the flight controls. From the view screen, the JJL could see waves of Mini-Mel fighters and Mini-Mels in jet packs come pouring out from one spot on Io's surface.

Tomi activated the ship's external force fields. He wasn't sure how long they would last, though.

"Marcus, fire at will!"

Marcus pulled the joystick triggers and let the hot plasma fly. Mini-Mel after Mini-Mel disintegrated into dust. The Mini-Fighters came and launched barrages of plasma and lead bullets. The JJL's force fields held, though. Next came the Mini-Mels who launched Power Beams and Power Blasts into the force fields. Some of the blasts pierced the field and went straight into the ship's hull. The blasts rocked the ship, but the hull stayed intact.

Rusty steered the ship in an erratic pattern, trying to shake off the waves of Minis, but there were just too many. It was like being attacked by swarms of mosquitoes. They were slowly whittling away at the ship. There was not much he could do.

An especially large explosion rocked the ship. Something flashed on one of the unmanned consoles. Tomi rushed over there and tapped the keys. "There's a hull breach! I'm sealing it off!"

The ship rocked again from another explosion. Then an idea hit Rusty.

"Guys! Raging Bullet!"

"What?" exclaimed Marcus. "Now? I don't know if we could-"

"Sure we could!" replied Rusty. "It might be just the thing to stop these pests.

"Well, you'd better do it fast!" said Tomi. "We aren't gonna last much longer out here!"

"Alright ,guys. Ready?"

"Bloody yes!"

"No."

"Now!"

The _Space Fighter_ suddenly spun around to face its attackers. This surprised the Minis for an instant. That was just enough.

"Activate spin!"

The _Fighter_ suddenly began spinning, just like a bullet, into the Mini swarm.

"Weapons activate! Shield at maximum!"

All the plasma guns, bullet launchers, missile launchers, and Empowered Beam shooters activated and fired outward.

"_ELECTROMANTIS-AURORAS!_"

A magical electric orb surrounded the _Fighter_ as it blasted its way through the midst of the Mini forces. The Minis were shot, zapped, fried, baked, evenly roasted, and even grilled with BBQ sauce as the Raging Bullet known as the _Space Fighter_ blasted its way through them.

"All stop!"

As it cleared the other side of the Mini mass, the _Space Fighter_ stopped spinning, stopped firing, and Marcus lowered the electric shield to conserve his energy.

"Well, that was exciting," stated Tomi.

------------------------------------------

Ubus watched the event through the computer in his base. Impressive. He would have to take note of this technique for later.

Just then Xario could be heard shouting down the corridor. "Ubus it's ready. I finished setting it up, sir! It's ready!"

Ubus excitedly jumped out of his seat and ran down the corridor while shouting over his shoulder. "Call off the Mini-Mels, Dario, and activate the drain! The plan is just beginning!"

------------------------------------------

Rusty gave Tomi and Marcus double high fives.

"Woot!" exclaimed Marcus. "Now all we need to do is rescue Tim, Tom, and Bee."

Unfortunately, the JJL failed to notice the beeping noise coming from one of the consoles that signified an incoming object.

The ship rocked from the impact of the blast. All three JJL members lost their footing and toppled to the floor. The lights suddenly dimmed and the consoles were sparking.

"Something's draining our power!" Marcus rushed up to the view screen. Through the static, he could make out a beam coming from Io's surface. The ship was rocked by sudden explosions caused by the force fields sealing up hull breaches failing and the air rushing out.

"We're losing structural integrity!" exclaimed Tomi. "We're not going to last much longer!

------------------------------------------

Ubus rushed into his grand hall just in time to his gadget begin to work. When the draining beam was activated it began to suck all of the energy from the JJL's _Space Fighter_.

Ubus could see the grand hall was filled with electrical wires, cables, and tubes all in a spider webbed network taking up the entire hall. In the middle of it all, suspended fifty feet in the air by all of this, was the cylindrical device he had been working on. The Trans-Spacial Corrector. It connected directly with a ring of metal stood upright about ten feet in diameter at ground level.

Energy from the _Space Fighter_ went throughout the wires and cables and into the Corrector. It was a beautiful sight. Blue sparks making a dazzling display of light.

Ubus held out his hand and Xario placed a black, high-tech looking device. Ubus attached the device to his index finger and kissed it. Now for the moment of truth.

Ubus walked up where the circular, metal ring was. He sliced the air with the device. It left a glowing yellow rip in the air. The rip opened into a distorted circle, constantly changing in shape and size. A flawed Dimensional portal.

The portal began to vibrate and Ubus could practically feel the structures of space and time falling apart around him. As sweet as it would be to incite ultimate chaos, that would have no practical purpose.

"Sir…" Xario said warningly. Jets of light were shooting out of the portal.

"Now!" shouted Ubus. "Do it now!"

Xario rushed over to the wall and pulled a switch. The cylindrical device flashed and sparked and shot a jet of blue light into the flawed Dimensional portal at the last second. There was a flash of yellow light and a burst of energy. Ubus shielded his eyes. When he uncovered them, he saw another beautiful sight.

The portal was perfectly round and took up the entire ten foot ring of metal. It stayed a constant shape and size, and let off a bright, smooth, yellow light with flecks of red and green in it. It was a perfect Dimensional portal. The Dimensional Tunnel was fixed.

Xario stood next to his boss. "Wow…where does it go?"

"Wherever the other half of the JJL went to," answered the evil mastermind.

Ubus tapped his watch. "Dario. I want you to stop the drain and release our hostages. See it through."

"Awww…Do I have to?" whined Dario.

"Yes. When you are done, you and Xario join me through the portal."

Xario turned to Ubus. "_Through_ the portal, sir? The _Dimensional_ portal?"

"Yes, yes," answered Ubus. "Don't worry, I'll wait for you. I would be foolish to go into unknown territory on my own. And if it's the Dimension I think it is….then I have a plan. Muhahah!"

"You know, your laugh really scare me sometimes."

"That's the point! Now, tah tah. I have a world to conquer." And with that, Ubus Mellus walked through the Dimensional portal.

------------------------------------------

The Animorphs, Chet, and Jenny had watched the entire space battle take place on a laptop computer in Chet's room. In the beginning Jake had demanded that Chet take them to help, but when they saw the Raging Bullet they calmed down. Now that the ship was being crippled by a mysterious power drain, Jake grabbed the front of Chet's vest and announced that if Chet wouldn't take them, they would just figure out how to fly one of the ships.

"We will?" asked Marco.

(It should not be that hard,) said Ax

"Boys! Calm down!" said Jenny, separating Chet and Jake. "Listen I think we can-"

"Hello?" The sound came from Chet's laptop. "It's Rusty. We're fine. The shaking has stopped. Don't panic."

"Oh thank God!" said Chet.

Marcus's voice could be heard now. "We are receiving a radio transmission on the JJL frequency. It's Tim! He says Tom and Bee are with him and they are fine. They managed to steal a Mini fighter."

"Wow," said Tomi. "It must be really cramped in there."

"It is," said Marcus. "They're going to rendezvous with us not too far from here."

"Do we have enough energy to jump into Hyperspace?" asked Rusty.

"Just enough to get to Mars," said Tomi. "We could hitch a ride via tow line, or borrow some fuel to get the rest of the way back."

"We could pick them up," suggested Jake.

The laptop could not transmit messages to the _Space Fighter_, but it could still receive mission logs.

"They'll be fine," said Jenny. "Those boys are really resourceful.

_DING! _"Computer system repaired."

"Finally!" said Chet. "Now we can work on getting you guys home! Er, not that I don't like you guys, but-"

"We get it," said Marco.

The computer began speaking again. "Running previous action: Interdimensional communication."

Chet sprang to his feet and began running to the main computer room. "No! Stop it! STOP IT! It could start another avalanche! COMPUTER, STOP!"

The Animorphs, Chet, and Jenny rushed into the main computer room. The screen showed data flashing by in complicated patterns.

"NOOO!"

"Contact established," said the computer.

Chet stopped suddenly in his tracks. It didn't cause an avalanche? But, then…did that mean…?

Just then, the face of John Vaugner, leader of the JJL, appeared on the screen. John stared puzzled through the computer at them.

"Whew!" said John. "Not an avalanche? That's a relief. I-" He stopped suddenly. "Chet? Is that you?"

"John!" Chet exclaimed, rushing up to the computer console. "It's me. It's definitely me!"

Beyond John, other people could be seen on the screen: Jimmy, Lee, Rachel, Cassie, and Tobias.

"Cassie!" Jake yelled.

"Jake? Oh my gosh! I'm so happy you're okay!"

"Reactivating Artificial Intelligence; designation 'C.'" said the computer.

C's hologram popped up. "Hi, guys. What did I miss?"

"Look at the screen," said Jenny.

"Oh! Oh wow!"

"Yeah."

John looked happily at his friends. It seemed as though the Animorphs could finally breath a breath of relief.

"Hey," said John. "Where's Rusty? And Marcus? And Tim, and Bee?"

"It's a long story," said Chet. "You might want to take a seat…"

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**Visser Three:**

_(The Blade Ship; Somewhere Over North America)_

"Uh, Visser Three?" It was another annoying Human Controller. Probably another "anger management counselor." Enough of their heads had rolled because of my tail blade that I thought they would stop coming.

(What?) I said. I was sick and tired of these people. Ever since the loss of the "Trans-Dimensional Project," they have kept coming to "consul" me. Haven't they figured out that "consoling" me gets them killed?

"Sir, we have an…uh…intruder."

(WHAT?) A quick swipe of my tail blade, and he was promptly headless. Good riddance.

(Why didn't anybody tell me about this SOONER?) I yelled. Yelling makes me feel better.

A Hork Bajir Controller pokes its ugly head in. "We were, er, scared to."

The Hork Bajir was headless soon after. Cowardice is not tolerated in the Yeerk Empire.

I marched down the hall the see just what was going on. I then heard explosions. Very near explosions. I saw a body of what had probably been a Hork Bajir Controller get blasted in my direction.

I saw a Human. A Human boy with bright, red hair. He was surrounded by a red orb and his hands were glowing with red energy. He had two other identical looking Humans with him.

"Call off your forces, Visser!" said, no, demanded the Human boy. He demanded with such authority, a almost reminded me of myself. "Call off you forces! I wish to speak with you!"

I signaled to my men with a gesture of my hand to stop and step aside. I approached the boy, who also gestured and his protective orb vanished.

(What makes you think you can negotiate with _me_? I am Visser Three, commander of the Yeerk invasion of Earth! What could you have that I would want enough to negotiate with _you_ for?)

The boy just chuckled. He was laughing at me? In anger I sliced my tail blade at him. The boy's arm moved inhumanly fast as he caught my tail. I must admit, I was surprised.

The boy then answered. "I am Ubus Mellus, commander of chaos, and I have plenty to negotiate with. Namely, your Andalite bandits. Or, as I like to call them, the Animorphs."

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**Author's Note (Rusty): **Hello. It's nice to finally see some action again! I can't tell you how much I was itching to dish out some fighting. Yeah!

Now, lessee here…Marco has been rescued, thanks to Jenny and us, and is now at 100 recovery. However, he had some funny dreams he hasn't told anyone about. It also seems that the guys in the Animorphs' dimension are having a relatively quiet time (besides the occasional explosion). I hope Erek gets well soon. It also seems we've had an action-packed time at the JJL. Danger, Mini-Mels, and devious plots! It can't get much more action-packed than that! Ubus Mellus also seems to have finally repaired the D-Tunnel! Now we can finally talk across Dimensions, but so can Ubus. It seems some interesting developments are happening.

**Wish-Wish**: Hey! You skipped the part where I saved the world!

**Rusty**: When did that happen?

**Wish-Wish**: When you weren't watching, duh!

**Rusty**: Right….Now for a word from Paddy! Woot!

**Paddy**: Thank you, Rusty! Hi all you readers out there. I would like to thank you for reading Chapter 8: Devious. There _do_ seem to be plenty of devious plots going on in the dimensions. In case you hadn't noticed, this chapter is twice as long as any chapter in the story so far. I wanted to give you guys extra to make up for taking so long in publishing these chapters. You've all been very good to me. Thanks for reading, you guys. You know who you are.

**Rusty**: Too lazy to type all their pen names up?

**Paddy**: Uh…yeah. You got me. But wait! I'm not done yet! My plan is to go on a minor revamp of all the past chapters. I want to improve the spelling, grammar, and maybe add some text to the first couple chapters. To do this, I am asking for you readers to really help me. I mean it! I really need you guy's help. If you can think of anything I can improve upon, any drastic grammar or spelling errors, or just some plot holes that make no sense. By no means is the story finished! I just want to improve some stuff before doing Chapter 9. I would like to thank you all for your help. Even if you don't normally review, I would appreciate it if you would drop a line. Oh, and one more thing. I'm thinking of changing the title of my story. I've already had _Ultramorphs: the JJL_ suggested to me. If you can think of any good titles, or you think the one I already have is perfect, please let me know. I really want to get more reviews on my story. I would definitely appreciate it! Thank you!

**Rusty**: You're too lazy to type a few pen names, but you go on to type all of _that_?

**Paddy**: Uh…yeah…

**Wish-Wish: **Meatballs!!


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